Trainer to Driver
by Ssb3Goku
Summary: For Ash there was two types of adventure: the one's you planned for and the one's that just happen. This adventure is the latter. Thrown into his world on the brink of war and destruction, this young aura guardian has to find his way around and try to understand this world. luckily, he'll meet some new friends, humans and blades, who could help him reach his goal of returning home.
1. A Whole New World

**Welcome to my new story! A Xenoblade Chronicles 2 and Pokémon crossover!**

 **Just so you people know this Ash isn't the usual anime Ash. He's based more on my other story 'Pokemon Z'(shameless plug-in I know) so if you wanna know more about his personality read that but you don't have to.**

 **So Ash here will be seventeen and will have aura abilities with some martial arts skills. So he won't be at a complete disadvantage to other characters. Anyway here comes the warning!**

 **Xenoblade Chronicles belongs to Monolith Studios and Pokémon belongs to Gamefreak. I own and profit nothing from this!**

 **-Chapter Starts-**

"That should do it…" A Gormotti yawned out, placing a dirty hoe on his shoulders as he took in the sight of the recently plowed fields, done entirely by himself.

The Gormotti, named Markus, look up at the sky to see the moon rising above him, it must be close to midnight. "Stupid parents making me plow the whole field on my own…" the young teen mumbled bitterly to himself, scratching behind his feline ears. Honestly, this was a needless punishment for what he's done.

So he went and flirted with some Ardainian girls, so what? The war was fifty years ago and he didn't much care for the bitter grudge they have against the entire race. I wonder if the Urayans do the same. he thought while slowly walking towards his wooden home, taking in his surroundings, and the complete lack of anyone out except military patrols. _Great I'm the only one who had to deal with this…_ at least he didn't have to clean dung for fertilizer.

He couldn't wait until he saved enough money to buy a ticket on the cheapest Titan ship out of here. _Maybe I should go to Mor Ardian? Argentum is pretty good too for jobs, maybe I could make it as one of them salvagers, that could be exciting._ he thought about all the possible things he could do. It was a cloud sea of opportunity out there and he was going to take it!

Just as he made it to the steps of his house he noticed something odd out of the corner of his eyes. He turned around to focus on what it was, difficult to see with it being dark, but it looked like… Is _the sky cracking?_ he thought in disbelief at what he was seeing. A strange looking crack appeared in the sky around the lake region north of Torigoth and it seemed more cracks splintered off from the first one, almost look like a spider web.

Suddenly, the crack in the middle opened up and a hole formed in the sky. The Gormotti teen looked at the spectacle flabbergasted, was this some strange weather phenomenon? The inside of the hole kinda looked like a tunnel, the inside looked like a rainbow he sees after a rainy day. Quite beautiful actually, if he wasn't terrified of it.

Suddenly, he saw something fall out of it. He couldn't make out what it was except the object was glowing blue, like the object was surrounded in a blue fire. Wasn't there a blade that recently arrived that uses blue flames to fight? Is this her doing or something?

Just as quickly as the hole in the sky opened, it disappeared. Not a trace of it remained in the night sky, like nothing happened at all. Except whatever came out of it, maybe he should go check it out and see what it is? _Nah. Must have imagined it, must be my exhausted mind playing tricks on me._ the young man thought snorting, holes opening in the sky was impossible.

Markus opened the door and walked inside heading towards his bedroom. He really needed to sleep, if he was seeing things then he really needed it.

 **-North of Torigoth-**

"Rough landing…" Someone moaned out as a hand stretched out towards the sky where the wormhole was. The portal disappeared causing the individual to moan out in both pain and disappointment. The figure slowly got up, surrounded by blue energy, before looking around his surroundings. "Where am I? This ain't ultra space, no doubt about it." the person asked just as the blue aura surrounding them dissipated.

"My aura ran out? That's a first," Ash mumbled out loud to himself looking down at his hands before clenching them, yup he was drained. At least the aura lasted long enough to cushion that fall, if it didn't he'd might not have gotten back up at all. "Best not fight anything until it recovers," he spoke up once more to himself stretching his sore limbs, seems the aura didn't stop all the damage.

He looked around to figure out where he was, he as no idea where that ultra wormhole sent him. _Cowardly ultra beast! I hope my pokemon, Lillie and the rest are doing fine…_ he thought concerned for their well being, could they deal with the ultra beasts without him? He couldn't think too much on that, he can only deal with his current situation.

Ash noticed he was in some grassy plains with a large lake and oversized roots spread around. He scrunched his eyes and noticed a giant windmill meaning people lived here, obviously the roots didn't make that. _Well looks like I have some luck._ he thought grinning at his fortune, maybe he could get back to Alola quickly.

He dusted himself off and adjusted his hat before deciding to take account of what he had. Ash shoved his hand into his pocket to check if his pokedex was alright, he needed it to pay for goods since he didn't have his wallet. Grasping something, he pulled it out and stared in shock at his pokedex. It was broke in half and it's internal circuitry was on the outside. The thing was useless unless he could fix it. Kinda makes him wish Clemont was here to fix it, or make it explode in some fashion. The latter could at least bring him amusement.

Ash stuffed the broken item in his pocket, maybe he'd get lucky and find someone who can fix it, before checking on what few items he had on his person. _Pokeballs? Broken. Trainer license? Useable but crumpled up. Emergency snacks? Intact._ Well that accounts for everything. He thought rolling his shoulders, maybe he should've brought his backpack on his ultra space journey.

With everything in order, kinda, he headed off towards the structure following the shore of the lake. Ash noticed a bunch of weird pokemon around but, luckily, most seem to be sleeping and those not sleeping, he could he get around no trouble. Giant frogs, giant shellfish and oversized horned fish were everywhere. He never heard of these things, maybe he was in a brand new region? The thought sent a jolt of excitement down his spine, if he wasn't in a rush, and having no pokemon, he might actually explore.

It took him a good solid ten minutes of walking, his legs were too sore from the fall for any running, but he made it to a wooden stairway beside a pond of… purple water with a sewage pipe draining purple fluid into it. Ash ignored the environmental violation and walked up the steps, his legs scream from pain with each step. After a short, but torturous, walk he made it to the top and looked around while catching his breath. Arceus was he exhausted and sore.

To his right he saw some sort of dock. It was fenced off with lookout towers going around the fence, was this some military thing? The men in strange uniforms with gas masks carrying rifles solidifying that idea. But that raises a bunch more questions. Ash as never seen military soldiers outside of books. What region needs such a force? There hasn't been an armed conflict in decades.

To his left was quite the familiar sight; farms. He saw rows of farmsteads growing a variety of crops and raising animals, it was quite the pleasant sight. It reminded him of Pallet town, a simple place where people lived with the land and the creatures who lived there. It actually relaxed Ash, a nice reminder of home.

After catching his breath, he noticed a wall and a large gate just beyond the rows of farmsteads. _Past that must be the town._ Ash theorized, he was curious why the town needed a wall in the first place. The only walled towns and cities he's seen are in history books or ruins of older settlements.

Ash banished the thought from his mind, now was not the time to focus on such things. He walked forward, past the farms, and into the large settlement which he still had no name for. Maybe they didn't believe in signs too, anything was possible.

Once passed the gate, he looked around to get his bearings to where he was. In front of his was a bridge that over a giant chasm and beyond that he saw several buildings and what look like a marketplace of some sort with a fountain. Around him were more buildings and what looked like a dock of some sort. It was far larger and didn't seem to have that militaristic feel to It that the one near the farms had, probably the towns commercial docks.

He also noted how deserted everything was except more soldiers with guns roaming around. Ash looked up at the sky to see the moon over head, it was probably midnight or just past that. Makes sense why no one's around. _Best ask one of those soldiers._ He'd rather not talk to a guy with a gun, especially without aura, but he was really running out of ideas.

Ash noticed one of the armed soldiers walking down the bridge towards him and decided to talk to him. The young pokemon trainer walked up to him waving at him in a polite manner, best not offend the guy with the gun. The soldier stopped walking just as he got up to him. "Excuse me. I was hoping to ask you a few things, I'm sorta lost," the seventeen year old asked with a polite smile on his face.

The soldier simply nodded his head before holstering the rifle behind his back. "Of course citizen. But may I ask… what is it that your wearing? Is that some new fashion from Mor Ardian?" the soldier asked staring at Ash, or more specifically his clothes.

Ash looked down at himself and pulled on his orange and black on his thin jacket over his white shirt. "Not really. My own personal style. But let me ask my questions before we talk about fashion, alright?" he asked adjusting his hat, thats colouring matched his jacket, with a hint of minor annoyance.

The soldier nodded and scratched his neck, probably the only clue of him being embarrassed that Ash could see. "of course. Sorry about the distraction, ask away," he said in a very thick accent that the pokemon trainer never heard before.

"What region am I in and what's the name of this town?" Ash asked stroking his chin, he needed to know where he is before anything else.

He couldn't tell if the soldier was giving him a look due to his mask, but he's gonna assume yes because he craned his neck to the right. "This is the imperial province of Gormott and this city is the capital, called Torigoth," he answered with a voice filled with disbelieve.

 _Gormott? Never heard of that region._ Ash hummed in thought scouring his memory for the name but came up with nothing, sounds like Kalos word though. "Thanks. Do you know where the pokémon center is?" every important town or city had a pokemon center for trainers, hopefully he could get a room to stay the night.

"A what center?" the man asked sounding seriously confused by Ash's question, shouldn't everybody know what a pokémon center is?

"A pokémon center. You know the place where they heal pokémon and give trainers a place to rest," Ash clarified slightly annoyed, was this guy dumb? A pokemon center is common knowledge.

"Kid. I don't have times for your little games, I got a patrol to do. So this conversation is over," the soldier said annoyed before pushing the teen aside and then walking past him towards the gate.

 _Jerk._ Ash thought to himself glaring at the back of the retreating soldier head, he didn't need to push him if he didn't know the answer. _I'll just go ask someone else, maybe I just got unlucky with that guy._ He thought trying to be positive as he walked towards a soldier beside the large fountain. No way could they all not know what a pokémon center is.

 **-Twenty Minutes Later-**

Ash was sitting on a bench with a look of disbelief on his face. He asked ten different guys and they all didn't know what a pokémon center was, or what a pokémon was. The only useful thing he learned was that the large building near the fountain was a inn. Which didn't matter to him since he had no money!

 _Looks like I'm sleeping on this bench…_ The trainer thought gloomy, he never thought he'd have to spend a night sleeping on a bench. At least it was cool night, he wouldn't be freezing to death in his sleep. Ash crossed his arms and leaned his head back closing his eyes, this is gonna be his most uncomfortable sleep ever.

Ash was snoring softly, blissfully unaware of his surroundings, before something pushed his shoulder trying to wake him up. "Wake up your vagrant! This bench ain't your bed!" A thick accented voice shouted at him causing the young trainer to wake up with a start.

"I'm sorry officer!" Ash blurted out getting up but regretting the decision. The teen held his sore back from sleeping on the hardwood bench, Arceus was that a bad choice. Suddenly however, the aching in his back started to ease up before disappearing entirely.

 _My aura!_ Ash thought gleefully ignoring the rant the soldier was throwing at him about vacancy was a crime. The teen closed his eyes before feeling out the aura in his body, he must have recovered some of his reserves during his night sleep. Nowhere near full but its something. He won't be throwing aura spheres around but at least it can sooth his aches and pains.

Ash looked around, ignoring the soldier from a few seconds ago, and noticed a strange sight. A bunch of people were gathered around some stall in the marketplace, he counted three to four dozen people around. But that wasn't the odd part, okay it slightly was, but the people themselves.

They all had cat pokémon like ears on the top of their heads and some with more exposing clothing had fur on them. Ash was weirded out at the sight, what were these things? Some offshoot of humans? Are the soldiers under the masks the same?

He shook his head at the thought before focusing on some shouting going on. He heard someone yelling about 'crystals' coming from the stall they were circling around. Ash walked towards the group and started to squeeze himself in between everyone as he tried making it to the front. After a minute of squeezing between people, and apologizing for knocking a child to the ground, he can finally see what's causing the gathering.

At the stand was more of those soldiers he's been seeing. Except one had this very tall hat that made him seem more important, or sillier in Ash's case. The fancy hat man stood behind a wooden desk but that wasn't what was catching the teens eyes though.

At the front of the table was a crystal of some sort. He's never seen anything like it and he's seen every rock known in the world. Evolutionary stones, everstones, hard rocks and so many more but none like this. The stone was a diamond shape and glowed a faint blue from some unknown energy, it was quite pretty actually.

"You there sir! Do you wish to awaken this core crystal?" Someone asked him knocking him out of his stupor. Ash was staring so intently at the crystal that he stopped paying attention to everything around him.

"Me?" The trainer asked looking at the guy with the funny helmet. He didn't understand what was going on due to him spacing out, everything was static during than.

"Of course my fellow Ardainian! Grab the crystal and let's see if your destined for greatness!" The man spoke sharing the same accent of the other soldiers. All the feline folk stared at him expecting him to grab the strange glowing crystal, can't back down now it seems.

Ash slowly walked up to the table as the crowd watched him intently anticipating something to happen, what he didn't know. Stopping at the table, he simply looked at the glowing rock before slowly stretching his hands towards it. His hand stopped, simply hovering over the rock as he noticed it's started to glow more intensely as his hand near it. He hesitated, the fear of not knowing what was going to happen frightening, but he swallowed his saliva before grasping the so called 'core crystal'.

At first, nothing happened. He felt nothing as he brought the crystal to his face to get a better look of it. He noticed some minor details he failed to notice earlier, seemed it had some strange designs carved into it. Ash turned around to look at the crowd of people with a look of confusion, they having a near identical look as him, not understanding what was suppose to happen.

"Is this thing brok... **Gah?!?!** " Before he could finish his statement, the crystal started to glow extremely brightly and started to heat up in his hands. The heat felt like it was burning his hand causing him to scream in pain and nearly forced him to his knees. But, he kept standing and instead of letting go, his grip on the crystal tightened. He wasn't going to lose to this stupid rock!

His aura flared up cloaking him in a shroud of aura, the act causing many in the crowd to gasp, even the soldiers, at the occurrence. Strangely, he felt his aura get sucked into the core crystal as it glowed even brighter, all most blinding the soon to be pokémon master. The light show caused by his aura and the crystal was near blinding to all, causing many spectators to look away and cover their eyes or else become blind.

Suddenly, it stopped. Ash opened his eyes, not even realizing he closed them, as he looked at his empty hand. The heat and light was gone but he felt strange, like he felt anchored or heavier than before. It was strange and foreign feeling to him, like he felt that he was incomplete somehow. The grasping of the crowd drawn him away from his strange feeling to what was happening in front of him.

An axe now floated in front of him. The axe was bizarre looking to him and didn't match any axe he's seen before. The upper half of the shaft looked like it was made out of white rope intertwined tightly to make it with strange glowing blue lines. The bottom half was grayish metal which had a golden and grey ornament at the bottom ending with a point. The top had a huge circle with some sort of large blue gem with a golden 'S' on top of the gem. Surrounding this golden sphere was a large golden halo connected to the sphere in the middle by grey metal that formed the other parts of the weapon.

At the top of the weapon, the grey metal was attached to cylinders that look like the upper shaft of the blade, just thicker. The right ended in a vicious spike, the spike being made of some blue crystal. The left side had a golden axe head which was massive, wider and taller than his whole chest, but it was blunt, no cutting edge but had a slit in it.

Ash on instinct reached out and grabbed the weapon by its shaft which ended the floating effect. After he gripped the weapon, a blade of blue energy shot out of the slit in the axe head. _An energy blade? Cool!_ He thought at how cool this weapon is, like it came out of anime or something.

Ash found the weapon oddly light, well for weapon of its size. He gave it a few practice swings, raising it above his head and bringing it back down, and didn't fall backwards or forwards like he expected. He also strangely felt… complete, like this weapon somehow felt apart of him in some fashion.

Ash just noticed something, too enthralled with this weapon to notice, but the crowd was still staring at him. Actually, no. They were staring behind him. And he just noticed a shadow was looming over him and it definitely wasn't the tall hat soldier man. The trainer quickly turned around and stared into a pair of vibrant green eyes.

"Took you awhile to notice huh? Can't be a hunter if you can't pay attention to your surrounding!" a boastful female voice spoke up from the person behind him, who simply stared back into his soft brown eyes.

The women behind him was nothing like he ever saw before. She was tall, around six feet or just under, and appeared to be floating off the ground by some force. She had tanned skin, not such a different tone from his own, and long wild white hair whipping behind her head. That's where all her 'normal' features ended.

Her arms and legs were covered by some white fabric, what it was he didn't know, creating gloves and very tall boots with slits in them exposing more tanned skin. On her wrists and where her feet began were golden rings, the ones on her wrists actually being attached to her while the ones near her feet were far larger and just floated in place. Above her knees, were ribbons made out of blue rope with light blue crystals acting like pins keeping the knot tight.

Around her waist was wide and open white skirt where the ends become more fluorescent green held up by a blue rope belt, similar to what's on her legs. Covering her privates was just panties and similar situation was going on with her breasts only being barely covered by some strange air tube thing with blue beads at the end keeping it shut. Behind her was some gold halo but the top third was missing and inside of it was a golden sphere floating freely inside.

On her shoulders was a cloak of white and green fur, white on the top while lower parts were green. To end her bizarre appearance, were two protrusions coming out of the top of her head. It was different shades of blues with two white stripes, he wasn't sure of their purpose on her body. This woman honestly one of the strangest things he's ever saw, and he's seen a lot of strange things.

"Who are you? More importantly, where did you come from?" Ash asked turning around to look at every direction, this woman just popped out of nowhere. He would've noticed her in the crowd if she was here earlier, who wouldn't with her strange appearance?

The strange women didn't reply at first. She started to float circles around him as her gaze never left him, it was like she was appraising him in some fashion. "I came from the core crystal you awakened obviously," she said dismissively before poking his side's and arms. "You got some muscle under those baggy clothes. You might make a decent driver…"

Ash was seriously confused by what was happening, did he actually summon her and what's a driver? "You still haven't answer my first question: who are you?" the teen asked eyeing her, what does she want?

The white haired women stopped in front of him before having a smirk on her face as she crossed her arms. Suddenly, a powerful burst of wind shot out of her forcing Ash back a few centimeters before he caught himself, the spectators weren't as fortunate. The ones at front were blasted onto the ground and the tent behind her was nearly pulled out of the ground if the soldiers didn't grab the ropes. The crowd around them panicked in fear not understanding what was happening, but Ash. This was a display of power, a show of the abilities she wields.

 **"I AM ZENOBIA!!! I seek the strongest opponents!!!** " She shouted as the winds she created grew in power forcing Ash back an entire foot, he had to admit this was an impressive display. " **You are my Driver!!! Wield me and prove our strength to all!!!** " She roared as the winds finally died down at her declaration, she got her point across so she needn't continue. She looked down at him and stared intently into his eyes, obviously she wanted his response to her words.

Ash slowly stood up to his full height, no longer needing to brace himself for her wind assault, and stared into her eyes. The two of them… weren't so different in goals. He wanted to become a pokemon master but truthfully, he really wanted to battle the strongest trainer the world had to offer. They both sought to prove themselves the best in some fashion. He felt a strange rush of excitement run through his veins, maybe he should give this driver thing a chance.

"I'm Ash Ketchum. I desire to return to my home but I don't know when I can…" He had no idea where he was, nobody here even knows about Kanto or pokémon, so maybe he should adjust to this until he can find way home. "Until then..!" he grabbed the axe with both hands before slamming the bottom of the axe into the ground. " **I'll be your driver!!!** " He shouted at her matching Zenobia's intense shout.

Zenobia looked down at him before crossing her arms with a smile on her face, obviously pleased with the response. "You have a raging typhoon in those eyes. I like that drive, seems we'll be getting along fine partner." she spoke in a tone that held some minor respect for him, seems the two were on the same page.

Ash matched her smile with his own but the moment was shattered when someone coughed beside him. It was tall hat soldiers from behind the desk, seems he walked up beside him when he and Zenobia were talking. "A very impressive display young man! Summoning a rare blade is quite, well, rare. You and your blade will surely benefit Mor Ardain's military might, after proper training of course. I welcome you to Mor Ardain's army new recruit!" the man congratulated as he pulled out a clipboard and pencil before handing it to Ash. "Just write your name on this form and he'll get you in a uniform right quick."

Ash, too excited from what happened to really pay attention, grabbed the clipboard and pencil than signing his name on the dotted line before handing the clipboard back. "No problem! I'm more than willing to join the army!" he spoke excitedly lifting his weapon proudly up before his eyes widened comically, the weight of what he did finally hitting him. " **I JOINED WHAT?!?!** " his screamed echoed throughout the city of Torigoth, oh his mom is gonna skin him alive for this.

 **-Chapter Ends-**

 **Well here's the first chapter of my story. Good god is Zenobia hard to describe in words, she's got a lot going on design wise than most blades. But, she's the most compatible blade for this Ash's personality.**

 **So let me answer some questions: Yes he will be getting more blades later on, I'm thinking three max. I'm unsure of the pairing but it might be Ash x Blade or one of the female main characters.**

 **That's all! Have a goodnight!**


	2. Basics and Terrorists

**Chapter two coming at you people! Sorry for the wait! Anyway not too much action this time around but next chapter is gonna be chalk full of the stuff.**

 **Also thanks for the support and suggestions. I haven't settled on a pairing just yet or his blades, picking blades are like picking pokémon in a normal pokémon fanfic. But, I'm gonna give Ash four instead of three. Somebody gave me a suggestion in the comments that I couldn't resist to add.**

 **Anyway, first warnings!**

 **Xenoblade Chronicles belongs to Monolith Studios and Pokémon belongs to Gamefreak. I own and profit nothing from this!**

 **-Chapter Starts-**

 _Well things could be worst…_ Ash thought to himself, a wooden spoon filled with a stew entering his mouth. After gulping down the spoonful, he pulled the spoon out of his mouth before scooping up another spoonful of the stuff from his bowl. He didn't know what the ingredients were, some of the vegetables looked similar to ones he knows, but he ate it anyway. They wouldn't poison their own soldiers.

After letting out his ear piercing shout, poor crowd of cat folk very much didn't enjoy it, that they commenced some ceremony for him. Pretty poor ceremony, all he did was recite some oath and took a knee in front of tall hat man, who's actually an army captain. There wasn't even any food, what ceremony didn't throw a nice feast during or after? Every pokémon league he went to did.

It was probably because of that what caused his stomach to growl. Somewhat embarrassing having your stomach growl while reciting a pretty important oath, well important to the army guys anyway. Seems the captain was a good sport though, he simply laughed it off before having one of his subordinates take Ash and Zenobia to the barracks to get some needed chow.

 _Speaking of Zenobia..._ Ash stared at the women who was sitting opposite of him eating as well, just not in a civil manner. The women simply had the bowl to her lips pouring the thick stew down her throat, only stopping when her mouth was full of large solid chunks of meat and veggies. Then, she'd just chew for a few seconds before returning to her former action, ignoring the liquid running down the side of her lips.

"Huh, Zenobia? Could you eat with your spoon?" Ash asked her politely, using his spoon to point to her's. Honestly, he'd be the last person to point out table manners to someone, he'd been scolded more times for that than anyone. However, at least he ate using utensils when your suppose to, he never grabbed a mouthful of spaghetti in his hand before shoving it into his mouth since he was five.

Zenobia's eyes looked in his direction for a few seconds but she continued with her current course. After finishing the bowl, she slammed the bowl onto the metal tray containing the rest of her meal. "No way. This is the fastest way to eat, we don't have time to spare. The best hunting is during the day! We can't waste precious sunlight taking our time eating!" She argued back, lifting her right hand to her chest and scooping up whatever stew escaped her maw onto her finger. After cleaning herself off, she sucked her fingers to slurp up the remains.

"Yeah I get that but… people are kinda staring," Ash commenting pointing to his right. Several soldiers were looking at them, or more specifically her, and it was kinda annoying. At least they weren't wearing those helmets and masks, he'd probably feel more intimidated than annoyed if they were.

"Says the guy on his fifth bowl of stew in the past five minutes. I'm only on my third. But, a good appetite is a sign of a warrior. So I approve," Zenobia said, a hint of approval in her tone and a smirk. This would be the first time someone was actually happy at the amount he ate, Brock and Cilan definitely weren't happy about it.

"Fair point but I don't think we can just leave anyway. The army, I heard, is pretty strict with their schedules," Ash pointed out, grabbing the bun of bread on his tray before tearing it in half. He dipped one half of the bun into his stew, soaking it in the thick broth, before taking a bite.

Zenobia sighed in obvious frustration at that info, she wasn't pleased about that. "Stupid army and their stupid rules…" she mumbled to herself, grabbing her own bun and simply taking a bite out of it.

"Well, I bet we'll find plenty of strong drivers in the army right? We can probably get some good spars in… after I learn how to be a driver." Ash told her trying to cheer up the battle hungry women, she's really determined to go out and fight. Unfortunately, he had no idea what a driver was, outside of being a fighter, or what she as a 'blade' did for her driver. This place is really weird, hopefully Zenobia can shed some light on his situation.

The blade hummed in thought for few minutes, chewing on her food in the meantime, before nodding her head. "I suppose… but the first drivers we're gonna meet are greenhorns like you. I need to get you ready to rise up the ranks!" Zenobia shouted excitedly, slamming her hands onto the table. When her fists meet the table, her fists broke through the wood creating two holes on her side of the table. "Hmm… thought the table was made of sturdier stuff. Military grade my rear," she scoffed, obviously unimpressed by the tables performance.

 ** _So strong!_** Ash thought looking at the sight wide eyed, and this was just an accident. He'd hate to see what she could do when she was actually trying. "Your really strong Zenobia!Your a lot stronger than I thought!" He exclaimed excitedly, praising her accidental feat of strength. He knew about her ability to manipulate wind but she had a great deal of physical strength to boot. Quite the skill set.

Zenobia simply grinned, accepting the praise he gave in strides. "Of course! But you shouldn't be too impressed with that. All blades have skills that they excel at. I'm great on the physical side but don't come asking me about 'botany' or that other book crap," she explained her feat away with a simple shrug of her shoulders, like what she did was nothing to be impressed by.

 _Different blades have different skills?_ he hummed to himself in thought, that's interesting. Ash wasn't surprised that she didn't enjoy reading and books, she seemed the action type of gal. Seems they have even more in common than at first glance, he hated to read and avoided it has much as possible. "Seems were on the same boat then, ain't much of a bookworm myself," He agreed, grabbing his cup of water and chugged it down.

Zenobia's grin from earlier returned, and even grew wider from before, obviously pleased by the similar tastes. "I knew we'd get along fine. Barely know each other yet we already share a bunch of stuff in common," the tone in her response held happiness, at least in a small amount.

Ash grinned back, enjoying the company of the blade that he only meet. Before their conversation could continue, shouting caught both of their attention. "Come on soldiers! You've had your fill now it's time for you lot to work it off! To the training field, **MOVE IT!!!** " someone shouted from the entrance to the kitchen, another soldier in uniform. Well probably not just a soldier, obviously he had authority if the others getting up with their trays was any indication.

"Yes! Finally some training!" Zenobia shouted excited, getting off her chair and began floating effortlessly once more. Using her wind powers, she levitated both of their trays and putting them away without causing a mess. She has pretty precise control of her powers, no wonder she's only used her hands for eating so far. "Let's go Ash! We need to forge you into a real warrior! For both our sakes," her voice seemed to lost her energetic tone, what did she mean by 'for both our sakes'?

Before Ash could ask her about it, someone spoke up beside them. "Your the new driver correct?" the voice asked.

Ash turned his head to look at the source of the voice, it was the soldier from earlier at the door. The voice was identical. "Uh yeah… I'm Ash Ketchum, and this is Zenobia. My blade," he introduced himself, and his partner who merely glanced at him before ignoring him. She didn't seem to be talkative to strangers.

"I know who you are. I was there for your… 'peculiar' blade awakening. Never saw anything like it in all my days," he stated, staring down Ash. He wasn't if the man was trying to intimidate him in some fashion. "That's beyond the point. I'm staff sergeant Frang Rosach, I supervise the training of troops for the Gormott division of the Ardianian army. You need to get in a uniform before joining the rest of the troops for training. Private Greum!" the man shouted, turning his head to look at soldier who was the last to put his tray away.

" **Yes sir!** " the soldier in question, a Gormotti with black hair, quickly pivoted and saluted his superior officer. His posture was quite tense, like he expected to be chasitied for some reason.

"At ease private," the sergeant said, causing the private to relax and his shoulders to slack slightly. He turned to look at Ash before pointing to the Gormotti. "Follow him to get your uniform. He's a driver Greum, so tell him the driver uniform code," with that said, the sergeant turned and left the cafeteria. Probably to supervise the training.

"Your the new driver people are talking about? Thought you'd be older. But, a driver is a driver, no matter how young. Follow me, I'll explain the code he talked about." Greum spoke to Ash before following the sergeant's lead and left the cafeteria.

Ash and Zenobia followed behind the man. "So what's this 'driver uniform code'?" he asked curious looking at his surrounding. The buildings were mostly metal with only wood floorinh, it was quite the contrast compared to Torigoth, where mostly everything seemed to be made out of wood.

The private simply shrugged his soldiers before stopping at a metal door with a plank saying 'Uniform storage' on the front. "It's nothing serious. Driver have more liberties with their uniforms compared to us regular Joes. Just head on in there and pick your uniform. Just come out here so I can make sure it's acceptable," he explained, opening the door revealing several pieces of clothing including just the regular uniform.

Ash nodded sighing mentally in relief, he didn't want to wear those masks and helmets they wore. He'd have to cut his hair just to put it on. "Sure. I'll be out in a few minutes," he said, walking inside and slamming the door shut behind him.

An awkward five minutes passed outside the door, Greum tried to start up a conversation with Zenobia but she simply crossed her arms and ignored him. The door of the room and Ash stepped out. "What do you think? Passable?" He asked, craning his neck to look at the uniform while carrying his old clothes.

Ash chose the standard uniform like Greum, obviously not wearing a helmet or mask, but had slightly larger piece of chest armor covering his entire chest rather than just a portion of it. He also wore a brown hat with a pair of goggles over it, he couldn't go anywhere without a hat. Luckily, there were several inside.

Greum's eyes inspected him, even lifting his arms to check for any wear and tear, before nodding. "Yeah it's good, looking like a real soldier now. But you sure you don't want one of these?" the private asked lifting his helmet and mask up. "It's good protection for your noggin," he joked, before starting to walking away gesturing for the two to follow him.

Ash ran up and walked beside the older man while Zenobia floated behind them, matching their pace effortlessly. "Yeah but it looks like it hinder my vision, you know? I'd rather go without it if I don't really need it," he defended his reasoning, it seemed to him that the helmet would impede his senses. And, he was a never fan of helmets himself. Caps all the way.

Greum would nod his head while putting his helmet on. "A slight point there. These buckets on our heads make it slightly difficult to get perfect aim but you get used to it. Eventually," he joked, seemed the guy was quite laid back.

The trio after walking for three minutes, or floating in Zenobia's case, would make to the massive courtyard. The army barrack was the place he walked past during the night before, it seemed it wasn't just dock for the army after all.

Ash took a breath of fresh air, the air around here was quite pure and unpolluted despite the metallic look of it. Reminded him of home, just not everything looking like metal. He looked around for a few minutes before noticing a large gathering of soldiers, and what looked like the sergeant from earlier. "Is that where our training is?" He asked, turning his head to Greum. He didn't really understand the army so he could be wrong.

"Yeah that's Sergeant Frang alright. He's one of the strictest officers in the entire army. Do what he says rookie and keep everything clean, best way to avoid him and his lectures," he advised chuckling softly while Ash simply nodded his head, good to know. Greum walked towards the gathering with Ash and Zenobia in toe.

"Ah, Private Greum and Private Ketchum, you've both just arrived," the sergeant spoke up, craning his head slightly to look at the new arrivals. "You arrived just in time, I just finished giving this regiment a speech to motivate them. Now we begin the exercise. Two hundred pushups now soldiers!" the sergeant barked out.

In unison, everyone in attendance dropped to the floor and began doing pushups. Ash counted off each push up mentally with a grin, two hundred pushups wasn't too hard. Especially since he have plenty aura in his system after that meal, this was going to be easy. _Easy peasy… **what?!?!** _he thought panicking, he felt sudden weight fall onto his back. He nearly collapsed but held his position.

"Come on soldier boy! I don't weigh that much!" Zenobia shouted from on top of him, seems she was the extra weight that was now on his back.

Ash craned his neck slightly and was able to see her white hair cascading down her back, no wind holding it up. He also saw her halo sphere thing on the floor beside him with her axe. It was a great relief knowing those things aren't crashing down on his poor spine, she's already quite heavy. "Toughing me up huh?" he asked her chuckling softly, he wasn't surprised that she was doing this.

"Of course! We need to show these grunts we're a cut above everyone else! I'm gonna push you a lot during your training! Get ready because Zenobia doesn't hold back!" She shouted again, he felt her rear move slightly on his back. Probably just trying to get comfortable for the long haul of his training.

Ash shook his head before returning to his pushups, even restarting his mental count. "Why don't you join in eh? I'm sure you can show up everyone here," he asked, keeping up his workout which has become quite difficult. It was a good challenge and would benefit him in the long run.

Zenobia merely scoffed at the suggestion. "I can do vertical pushups while balancing one of those metal crates on my feet. Still that would barely be a challenge for me," she explained, she was obviously secure in her physical abilities. From what he saw from her earlier in the cafeteria, he knew that wasn't an empty boast.

After about an hour, the sergeant stopped the exercise. All of the soldiers got back onto their feet, except one. The sergeant stopped in front of Ash who was still performing pushups, Zenobia sitting on his back legs crossed. "That's enough Ash, don't exhaust yourself so early," the man said, though his tone seemed to hold a hint of respect for the teen. He seemed impressed by the extra work Ash put himself through.

Ash nodded, while Zenobia floated off him, and he got back up. His face was drenched with quite a bit of sweat, he'd definitely would need a shower later. "Got it," he replied exhausted but felt accomplished, he did two hundred and thirty four pushups with Zenobia on his back. That's gotta be his best workout session.

Aura flowed through his body, rejuvenating his tired and sore muscles. Good thing aura works like a spare battery. Ash thought with a smile, stretching his body. He was glad his lineage let him be an aura guardian, he'd need it for everything Zenobia no doubt was going to throw at him.

The sergeant nodded before taking his spot back at the front of the group. "Alright! That was a good warm up! Now it's time for some hand to hand combat!" the man shouted, something he appeared to enjoy doing. "Private Ketchum will face off against Private Fenniken! I'd like to see what our new recruits can do without their weapons!" he order, the two individuals walking forward to stand in front of the assembled soldier.

Ash turned to look at his opponent who got into a sloppy boxing position, his footing was all wrong. He actually knew some martial arts, he meet a bunch of martial artists during his adventures. Even Bruno of the elite four! He picked up a quite a few things from them, he felt he was pretty good in a fistfight.

"The two of you can begin when ready," the sergeant said, backing up slightly giving the two combatants more room to fight.

Zenobia was watching the fight closely curious, she wanted to see what her driver was made off. _Let's see how you handle yourself in a fight._ she thought, this would be her first time seeing him in a fight. She was impressed at how well he handled the workout. Hopefully he'll keep impressing her.

Ash took his own boxing stance, arms coiled close to his chest and his right leg in front of his left. He charged forward quite quickly, closing the gap between them in only three seconds. His opponent threw a jab at his face but he was able to duck under it. But he did knock Ash's new hat off his head.

His opponent overextended his reach and left himself open, the guy obviously didn't have any hand to hand training. Ash threw a punch towards his stomach and the blow connected, knocking the wind out of his opponent. The punch was infused with a little bit of aura, giving the punch a little more kick than normal.

Ash pulled his fist back and backed up. His fellow private grabbed his gut in pain before collapsing onto the ground, his moans of pain being heard by all. The sergeant walked up to the victor nodding his head. "Well done son. But, old Fenniken was a new recruit. Probably tilled more fields than threw punches," he chuckled, while two soldiers picked up the downed soldier and took him back amongst the others.

"Anyway, I think you demonstrated reasonable skill in hand to hand combat. However, a driver will rarely ever battle without his blade," the sergeant spoke up looking at Ash, inspecting him further. "Do you know what 'driver arts' are?" he asked expectantly, as if he should already know the term.

"I don't know what that is..." Ash mumbled out loud scratching the back of his head, there's something else that he didn't know.

Some of the soldiers started chuckling at his ignorance which was silenced by the sergeant, he simply raised his hand quieting the laughter. "I believe it's best you be excused from this exercise, you've proven capable in hand to hand combat. You should speak with your blade to learn, she should remember the basics of driver and blade arts," he explained to the confused teen. The sergeant started to bark orders to the men while Ash walked towards Zenobia.

"Good punch. Didn't expect you have any fighting knowledge. Makes my job easier," he complimented, something she's rarely done at all. She used her wind power to blow his hat, which was still on the floor, into the air and into her hand. She held it out to him to take.

Ash smiled, gladly taking the hat and placing it securely on his head. He honestly felt naked if he didn't have a cap on his head. "Thanks. Frang told me to ask you to teach me about driver and blade arts. Whatever those are," he mumbled, he imagined it had to do with fighting. This whole driver thing was really complicated compared to being a trainer.

Zenobia nodded her head before grabbing her axe and offering it to him. "Yeah I can show you the ropes. Sorry about throwing all this stuff at you and not teaching you how to actually be a driver. I get excited easily," she apologized a blush of embarrassment on her face, she really jumped the gun with him.

Ash took the axe out of her hand and lifted over his shoulder with ease. "It's alright. I kinda just agreed to be your driver without knowing what I was agreeing to. It's more my fault." he reassured, she wasn't the only who got too excited. His friends had to bail him out several times when he simply jumped into something.

Zenobia gave him a smile before it shifted to a more serious look. "Alright I'll explain. Driver arts are special attacks used by a driver. It's pretty much: you'll be using power I channel into the weapon to unleash attacks more powerful than you just swinging that axe around normally," she explained simply, it was better for him if she didn't explain the whole ether process. It's headache for her as well.

Ash stared at the weapon for second before letting loose a few practice swings. "So you don't do any of the fighting?" he asked her somewhat surprised, it's like the complete opposite of being a trainer. He was the one fighting while she's supporting him with power, like a reactor or battery.

"Yes and no. I can throw a few punches but the true power of a blade comes through their driver," she told him looking into his still confused eyes, best explain this better. "A blades power is wild and hard to focus. We need a driver to hone that power into a fine edge. Those burst of wind I used when we first meet ain't gonna do much in a fight. Except maybe knock a baddie on his ass," she joked chuckling to herself, that would be a funny sight to see.

Ash looked down at the blade and nodded in understanding, to use her power effectively, it was up to him to drive her. The name kinda makes sense now. "So… for driver arts do you teach me or do I make them up?" he asked her eyebrow raised, hopefully this won't be too hard.

"The latter one. Driver arts differ between drivers, even drivers using the same weapon will have different arts with differing effects. There ain't a set style of driver arts," she answered his question before continuing, she knew what her driver might ask. "My element is wind. Think about that and how it could affect your attacks. Manifest the image of that in your mind and act on it, my powers will do the rest from there. Got it?" She explained crossing her arms, she was talking way too much for her liking.

Ash thought about what she said, he had to visualise the attack in his mind. And surprisingly, he had a good bases for a driver art. Flying type pokémon used the wind for their special attacks, kinda similar to what Zenobia does. _Visualize the attack…._ he thought to himself, raising the axe high above his head. Air swirled around the axe head has Zenobia fueled the weapon with her power.

 ** _Air slash!!!_** Ash shouted mentally bringing the axe down with all his might. However, he got an unexpected result from what he was originally trying to do. Instead of creating a blade of wind, like the move was suppose to do, the axe head just slammed into the metal ground releasing powerful burst of wind. The wind was so strong, that it pushed him away from the axe's handle and knocked him onto his back.

 _That's more air smash than slash…_ Ash thought disappointed looking up at the sky, the attack didn't do what it was suppose to. To top it off, he was knocked onto his back by his own attack. He expected to hear Zenobia laughing at his failure. What he got was her gloved hand offering to help him up and pleased smile on her face.

"Damn that was impressive! That was a smash blade art, few blade arts have that quality. You need a little work so you don't stumble yourself again but that's a good art you invented. Whatcha gonna call it?" she asked genuinely impressed with him.

Ash grasped her hand before she pulled him back up onto his feet. He didn't expect praise from what he thought was a failure, guess ones failure could be someone else's success. Like those art paintings that look like a toddler did them. "It's called… Current Crash," he told her, making a name up on the fly. "Good name?"

Zenobia shrugged her shoulders at his name, not caring. "It's alright. But you should make less wind base. Maybe 'Crushing Swing' would be good," she suggested scratching her chin, her name was pretty good.

Ash smiled at the name, it's pretty good. He looked at the spot where the attacked it and let out a surprised gasp at the sight. The floor where the axe connected was mangled for nearly two meter diameter, like he repeated slammed it with a sledge hammer. He didn't notice the damage due to being knocked onto his back, no wonder Zenobia was impressed. _The name is really fitting…_ he mumbled in his mind, that damage could put some pokémon moves to shame.

"Anyway, let's keep this training up. You need to invent and master more arts. The sergeant is probably gonna call us back eventually. **So let's use what time we got!!!** " She shouted at the last part, excited about what else he could come up with.

 **-Two Days Later-**

Ash sat at a table in the cafeteria biting into a bunnit leg, pretty tasty critter actually. Too bad it's meat is really stringy. Zenobia sat in front of him crunching down on her on leg while Greum sat beside him eating a soup. The two sorta hung out together now. Well more like he tries to talk with Zenobia, or was it more flirting? Well it didn't really matter what it is, she never responds back to him. Kinda reminds him of a good friend, minus the good cooking skill.

The past few days could be sum up in one word, training. All his hours not eating, sleeping, or going to the bathroom was spent training with either the army or Zenobia. Outside of physical exercises, which his blade made sure to make it more difficult, he started doing patrols and was forced to learn military lingo and facts.

He also meet his first drivers as well, guys and gals who did the core crystal awakening in the market like himself. But their blades were different, or lack differences in this case. They came in all shape and sizes, male, female, and even tigers! But they all shared a similar visuals with only difference being body shapes and small aesthetic.

Zenobia told him they were common blades, not as strong as rare blades like her and lacked unique appearances. The new drivers told him stories about people who couldn't awaken blades, pretty gruesome stories honestly. Puking up blood and muscles tearing apart were some of the disgusting fates people suffer if they try to awaken a blade and fail. Made him curious if it wasn't for his aura that he might have suffered a fate like that.

"Did you hear the latest news mate?" Greum said to Ash knocking him out of his thoughts, this was the first time he actually spoke to him today. It always caught him off guard when he just suddenly shift his attention away from Zenobia and onto him.

"I haven't heard about anything. What's going on?" Ash asked curious, outside of Zenobia and, kinda, Greum he had few friends in the army. Some disliked his blades boastful personality, others dislikes his excitable one, others disliked him due to fighting him and losing. To say he was out of the loop would be an understatement.

"A bounty for a group of terrorist known as 'Torna' came down from the brass this morning. We're supposed to be on high alert for them," Greum explained, grabbing a grilled potato slice, or whatever they call potato here, from Ash's plate and taking a bite out of it.

"Terrorists?" that's a word Ash only heard in books. The closest thing to terrorists in his home are the criminal organizations, even then calling them terrorists seems a bit extreme. "What did they do?" He asked, getting branded with that title you'd have to do terrible things.

"From what I heard. The guys hired a crew of salvagers from Argentum to hull up a ship from uncharted waters. They supposedly were gonna kill the entire crew until something stopped them. Outside of that, everything is just speculation. Still, their very dangerous and I heard all of them are drivers," Greum explained putting his right hand into his pocket, trying to fish something out.

"Hopefully such brutes don't come around here, Gormott isn't exactly equipped to deal with such groups. Here's their wanted posters." he finished tossing three posters onto the table, peaking Ash's and Zenobia as they stared at them.

The pictures were hand drawn and gave a pretty good visual of the culprits, except anything that needed colour to identify. Two of them were obviously male and one that was… he honestly didn't know what gender it was. The mask wearing male had 'Jin' written below the picture, obviously his name. The more normal looking male was called 'Malos' and appeared to have darker drawn hair. The third person was 'Nia', sounded female, and looked like… a person with detailed tiger face drawn on.

"What happen to this 'Nia' character? Why does she, or he, have a tiger face?" Ash asked feeling bad for it, was this being the product of a failed experiment by a scientist taking things too far? Maybe it had a tragic story like mewtwo, hopefully with less world ending psychic powers.

Greum merely shrugged his shoulders while Zenobia picked up the posters and looked at them closely. "Don't know mate. I heard weird stories of scientists concocting bizarre stuff. Could be a product of that. Too bad to, I bet she was real cute before she got that face," he joked grabbing the posters out of the blade's hands, stuffing them back in his pocket. "Don't you two have an afternoon patrol through Torigoth to get to now? Lunch is almost over."

Ash and Zenobia looked at the clock hanging over the exit of the cafeteria, they needed to confirm if he was speaking the truth. Greum was known to exaggerate a little. "Crap he's right! We need to stuff our faces quick!" his blade shouted, starting to eat her food with renewed vigor. She wanted to stuff as much food as possible.

Ash wordlessly followed suit, grabbing his discarded bunnit leg and ripping a chunk out of it. He needed as much energy as possible to refuel his aura, Zenobia has been exhausting his aura daily since he's meet her.

Greum got off his seat chuckling, the duo was quite the amusing bunch. "I'll leave you two to stuffing your faces, I got my hour of me time now. Got some cute new recruits I haven't introduced myself to yet. See ya!" he said giggling to himself. He walked away from the duo who was now fighting over the last bunnit leg.

 **-One Hour Later-**

Ash, his blade and seven regular soldiers patrolled the streets of Torigoth. He enjoyed patrolling surprisingly, it's the only time he wasn't training. All soldiers got at least two hour during the day for free time, he didn't due to Zenobia. She drilled him hard during his supposed free time. However, she couldn't make him train during patrols so he enjoyed the only time his arms didn't feel like spaghetti.

Patrolling was kinda awkward though. Mostly due to the locals reaction to the military in town, a really mixed reaction. The younger people mostly seemed friendly to them, he's enjoyed quite a few talks with them. The older citizens are different story entirely. They refuse to even look in their direction and whisper between themselves, probably not saying nice things.

Ash learned quite a bit about the world he was in, 'Alrest' the people call it. Everyone lived on giant monsters called 'Titans' that circle a massive tree called 'The World Tree' for some unknown reason. He also learned of war between Gormott, which used to be independent country, and Mor Ardian, the country that owns the army he joined. Obviously, the older citizens remember the war and hold a grudge while the younger people seem to have forgiven Mor Ardian.

"You lot stop!" somebody shouted out to The patrolling soldiers. Ash looked ahead to see the captain who recruited him running up to the patrol. The man came to stop in front of them, he placed his hands onto his knees and was breathing heavily. He was in a hurry for something.

"Is something wrong captain? Your acting like yeah have hounds on your heel," one of his patrol mates asked, Furges was his name.

" _I might as well have! A member of Torna as been spotted here!_ " he told them, keeping his voice down so only the group of soldiers could here. It looked like he didn't want the townspeople to know, probably to avoid a panic.

" _A member of Torna? Here?!_ " Furges mumbled back to the captain body tense, this was very bad situation.

" _Yes… It's a good thing I ran into a patrol, we must arrest her before she gets away,_ " the captain whispered to them gesturing them to get closer, he wanted to tell them his plan to arrest the terrorist. " _I saw her, an unknown companion and two blades head through the back road. Nobody uses it much so it's a perfect place to arrest her and minimize risk to bystanders,_ " He explained.

Everyone nodded at the logic, it was probably their best bet. " _I'll take half the patrol and block one way of the back road,_ " Furges suggested, they couldn't let her make a break for it if they confronted her

" _Good idea lad. Me, the driver and the rest will block the way they went in. They'll be trapped, hopefully we can arrest her without much fuss,_ " the captain added further, seems the plan was set. " _You all got your jobs to do soldiers. Let's move and good luck,_ " the group broke up in two and headed in two different direction.

" _This is it huh? A real fight,_ " Ash whispered to Zenobia marching beside the captain, he was quite nervous. The only fighting he's done as a driver were sparring matches with fellow new drivers. This will be a different beast, probably experienced drivers. He wasn't sure he was ready for this, he could seriously get injured… or die.

" _Yeah... This is gonna be great!_ " Zenobia whispered back excitedly, she's been dying for a real fight for awhile. Ash could feel the excitement pouring off her and it calmed his nerves, he was even getting kinda excited himself. " _You'll do fine. You've got your arts down and you've gotten better with my axe, you'll hold your own… partner,_ " she reassured him, grabbing her axe off her back and offering it to him. She offered him a reassuring smile, quite different from her confident smirk.

Ash gave her his own smile and grabbed the axe readily, he couldn't doubt himself. He was always confident, in himself and his friends. He won't let his fears get the best of him now, when he couldn't afford to. _Time to put all that training to use._ he thought nodding at her, while the group entered the back road.

Ash saw a group of four ahead of them and he swallowed his saliva. _time for my trial by fire._

 **-Chapter End-**

 **That's chapter two down. Keep the comments and suggestions coming! I read them intently and they inspire me to write.**


	3. Trial by Fire

**The official chapter three is finally out, sorry again guys. Hit a writing block plus my new job took me some serious readjustment. Here's the new Chapter and thank you all for the support!**

 **Xenoblade Chronicles belongs to Monolith Studios and Pokémon belongs to Gamefreak. I own and profit nothing from this!**

 **-Chapter starts-**

Many emotions passed through Ash's mind as he walked with his companions. They passed under a bridge before the captain shouted something to the group, getting their attention. Frang and his group came up from the other side, surprising them since they were focused on the group in front of them.

 _Could I possibly kill one of them?_ Ash thought staring at the two humans, the gravity of the situation hitting him. He never once killed but now was expected to. That alone made his stomach twist slightly, he could honestly puke at the thought of that possibility. He really hoped that they surrendered, for everyone attending sakes.

 _Wait a minute…_ Ash stared at the faces of the two people and was really confused. These two didn't look like the terrorists at all!

The male looked way too young, his features soft and retaining some minor baby fat, and his hair seemed too light to match the posters. The girl was Gormotti with grey hair and three yellowish tattoos on her face. She wore a strange yellow and white jumpsuit with a cloak, having a hood attached to it with protrusions so her ears can fit.

"Huh Captain?" Ash turned his head to look at the man with the tall hat. This seemed like a really weird mistake, these guy's didn't fit the posters at all. Maybe he was just mistaken.

"What is it? Can't you see I'm trying to arrest a terrorist and a unlicensed driver?" the captain asked, sounding quite annoyed. He didn't appreciate the interruption much.

"Huh which one's the terrorist? I don't recognize either of them from the posters I saw right. Right Zenobia?" Ash turned to his blade, hoping to get a response out of her. Instead he was meet with a strange look of focus on his blades face, she was staring at the group intensely. More specifically a single person.

Ash follow her line of sight and looked at the concerned eyes of blade. She had red hair with a strange red outfit, like all rare blades seem to share, with green lines criss crossing around her clothes. What was odd was the crystal around her neck. Zenobia had one too, with her collar making it look like a choker, but this blades crystal was different. Her's was an emerald green colour and shaped like a cross, while Zenobia's was blue and lighting bolt shaped. It also seemed to be missing a section in the middle.

"Huh?" Zenobia looked around in a light daze, seemed his voice knocked her out of whatever trance she was in. She looked towards him before refocusing on the group in front of her, her possible opponents. "The girl. She's the tiger faced person from the posters." she told him crossing her arms chuckling, oh that poster didn't do her justice.

Ash eyes comically enlarged as he stared at the women, who looked quite mad at Zenobia laughing at her expense. As he looked at her closer he did notice some familiar features now. The hair style and the upper half of her outfit matched the posters, quite bizarre at how they got those things right but not her face. He looked towards the white tiger blade and everything clicked together.

Ash's cheeks expanded as he tried his best efforts to stop the brewing laughter, even covering his mouth with his hands. He couldn't though. He removed his hands and a booming laughter ringed throughout the back road. " **They combined your face with your blade's in the poster!!!** " he shouted holding his stomach, oh Arceus this was too good! Who do you blame for this?! The artist or the witness? He almost felt bad for her, that's not a face you want people connecting to you.

" **Oh shut It!!! It ain't that funny!!!** " she hissed at him, body ready to pounce on him in any second. She's already having a bad day with that poster now circulating across the world now. She didn't need this random driver mocking her about it, she already as to deal with people thinking the poster looked identical to her. She didn't even look at all like that accursed poster!

"It is though! Maybe it's because of that pose, **you got that feline pose and grace!!!** " Ash joked wiping away a tear, oh he hasn't laughed like this in awhile. The girl looked like a cat ready to pounce on her prey, probably him. She seemed to act like a human cat, none of the others Gormotti acted like that. Maybe she weird.

"To be fair Nia… you kinda do act a lot like a cat," her male companion said chuckling softly, seemed he at least got Ash's point. His laughter was silenced when she hissed at him, she didn't seem to appreciate the joke. Well she was the butt of it to be fair.

"How about you focus on our **current** situation Rex! We do have several people pointing guns at us! Stop making friends with the enemy!" Nia shouted annoyed, she didn't like people making jokes about her in a time like this.

Rex gave her a sheepish look before focusing on the soldiers in front of him, a serious look on his face. "I won't let you arrest Nia! No matter how much that poster looks like her!" the brunette shouted gripping his sword, and unintentionally upsetting his ally. She hissed at him again and getting another round of laughter out of Ash.

Ash wiped a forming tear from his left eye, he hasn't laughed like that in awhile. Best get serious. The others are getting kinda annoyed… he noted the captain staring at him, probably in frustration at grinding everything to a halt. "Look. Just come with us and we can see if we can sort this out. You guys don't seem like a bad bunch," he offered giving them a smile. They didn't seem like bad people to him, he felt it in his gut. He was usually good at reading people's character's, except team rocket when they disguised themselves.

The two, supposed, criminal started whispering among themselves. What they were saying Ash didn't know, hopefully considering his offer. If they chose to fight, they couldn't escape without fighting, than he'd have no choice but to attack them. He gripped his axe tightly feeling the atmosphere get tense. "They're gonna fight aren't they?" He asked his blade, they were taking way to long.

"Probably. They ain't got no reason to trust your word, no offense," Zenobia responded, eying the strangers as they nodded to each other. She noted their bodies getting tense, not something you'd do if your surrendering to someone. "I prefer it this way. This is the fun way," the woman grinned crossing her arms, she was dying for some action.

Suddenly, the brunette, Rex if he remembered, charged forward towards Ash and the captain. Nia charged the opposite direction, headed towards the soldiers blocking the other side of the road. Their respective blades followed behind them, the red haired girl with Rex and the white tiger with Nia.

Ash charged forward to meet Rex head on, he couldn't let him reach his non-driver companions. The two swung at each other, their weapons clashing stopping each other momentum. "You know this ain't gonna help your case right?!" He shouted at Rex, pumping small amounts of aura into his arm. The aura fortified his muscles allowing him to push against Rex's blade with more force, pushing the fellow teen back.

Rex was surprised as his boots grinded against the dirt. _How is he overpowering me?! We were even just before!_ The brunette thought jumping back, causing Ash's axe to smash into the ground. "Like hell we'll surrender! Nia didn't do nothing wrong, she helped save people!" He shouted back readying his blade, no way was he going to let these guys arrest him or Nia.

Ash sighed, well there goes diplomacy out the window. What Rex said did catch his interest though, was that true? Did she help people, like the ones Torna were gonna kill? "Even if she did, I can't help you now!" He shouted back, they attacked them now. What they could say didn't matter at this point, he had to take them down.

Ash charged forward Zenobia right behind him, a wild grin on her face. Ash raised his axe over his head while wind gathered around It, time to test out his new art! " **Crushing Swing!!!** " he shouted, bringing the axe down towards Rex, who raised his flaming sword to block the attack.

The axe slammed into the sword with great force, the ground beneath Rex's feet cracking under the force. Damn It! The brunette thought with a pained expression, his fingers felt like they might break from the force. He angled his sword's blade enough causing Ash's weapon to slide off and get caught in the ground, exposing him. "Eat this!" he shouted, swinging his flaming blade at Ash's chest.

 _Crap!_ Ash thought panicked, his blade was now stuck in the ground and he couldn't pry it out to block the attack. Unless… he grabbed the hilt of his axe and pushed it forward, causing it to now be in front of the incoming swing. The flaming sword slammed into the hilt, surprising his brunette opponent. The moment of surprise allowed him to kick Rex in the gut with an aura infused foot, pushing him back a few feet.

With the extra breathing room, Ash pulled the axe out of the ground and looked at his opponent. The guy was holding his gut while his blade rushed towards him, checking on him. "Your good… I kinda wished you were on my side, would've made a great sparring partner." He compliment his breath laboured, this battle was intense. He felt a grin appear on his face, he kinda understood why Zenobia loved this. He wanted to continue this fight.

"You ain't bad yourself... you pack a lot more punch than I expected." Rex compliment back, reassuring his blade that he was alright. "Time for me to try a different approach…" he mumbled to himself, gripping his sword tightly in his hands. _Taking him on head to head ain't working, I need to hit with something from a distance._ He thought to himself, it was obvious his enemy was stronger in melee. "Ready Pyra?" he asked her, he was gonna need more of her power for this.

"I am." Pyra reassured him giving Rex an encouraging smile before glancing at her opponents. _Something isn't normal with that driver. It's like he's giving off energy…_ she thought to herself, no human should be producing energy.

"Alright! Try this!" Rex raised his sword high, the flames around the blade growing, before bringing it down in a swiping motion. A blade of flames shot out and speed towards Ash quickly, it only would take a few seconds for it to reach him.

 _Switching to range attacks? I have my own!_ Ash thought grinning, he's been practicing on how to use Zenobia's power to its fullest and figured out a useful range option. He mimicked Rex's gesture, raising his axe over his head, before bringing the mighty axe down. The swing produced a air blade which rushed forward towards his enemy's attack.

The two attacks meet each other in the midway point between the two of them. Shockingly to Ash, Rex's attack overwhelmed his near instantly, there wasn't even a power struggle.

 _ **Crap!!!**_ Ash thought rolling to the right side while Zenobia floated to the left to dodge the incoming attack. The attack sailed past them but did hit someone.

The captain was taking aim at Nia, who was currently fighting his subordinates, and planned to take her down with a single shot. Or he would, if he wasn't hit by Rex's stray attack. " **Gahhhh!!!** " the captain yelled in agony, flying through the air his body smoking. His body hit the floor roughly and he moaned in pain, his uniform was charred and smoking from the attack.

Ash's flinched slightly at the sight, he didn't mean for that to happen. Before he could shout an apology to his superior, he was forced to leap back to dodge a fire ball courtesy of Rex. His opponent began firing a flurry of fire balls forcing Ash and Zenobia on the back foot, the duo had to dodge the attacks or potentially get roasted like the captain.

 _This is going south fast!_ Ash thought annoyed, swiping away a fireball with his axe but having to twist his body to narrowly dodge another. He felt the heat as the attack just grazed his shoulder, he was lucky that his hair didn't catch on fire from how close that was. I need to close the gap between us and take him out before that Nia person joins in. The battle in general waa going awfully for them.

Ash scanned the area while dodging projectiles. Over half the party of the patrol was still standing, that Nia girl was making quick work of his fellow regular soldiers. At this rate it will be two against one, technically four against two if blades are included, and he didn't like those odds at all. He was struggling with just one.

 _Think Ash think. How do you close the gap without draining your aura like mad?_ He thought continuing to maneuvering around the attack, trying to get closer to Rex by evading between the attacks. He could just rush forward surrounded by aura, acting like armor, but that would be murder on his aura reserves. He wasn't confident he could take out Rex in a single blow which would leave his aura reserves drained and facing two drivers at once. A worse situation than he was currently in.

Ash leaped back again dodging another fireball, seemed his opponent notice him getting closer. The fireball exploded on the ground and kicked up a quite bit of dust, obscuring his vision slightly. _That's it!_ He grinned as a plan formulated in his head, it could work if they timed it right and hit hard. He rushed towards his blade, ducking and dodging Rex's unrelenting ranged assault, stopping beside her continuing the same song and dance of dodging.

"Zenobia," Ash whispered loudly, loud enough for her to hear but not their enemies. "I got plan, do you have one them blade specials built up?" he asked her swatting away another fireball, he was getting real tired of this song and dance.

She taught him what 'blade specials' were during his training, well parts of it anyway. She said there were certain extra tidbits about them that he didn't need to know yet, something about requirements and more blades. She didn't seem to keen on going in-depth.The short story was; driver arts build up energy in blades after their used and blades can release that energy in super attacks. Each blade had four specials but stronger specials needed more energy built up to use, greater cost for a greater payout.

Zenobia raised her left hand, putting up a yellow coloured barrier stopping another fireball. She shared her drivers annoyance with their current problem. "Yeah I do. What's the plan?" she asked eyebrow raised, hopefully whatever it was it can end this stalemate. Real warriors fought each other face to face, not at a distance like cowards. This Rex guy was really pissing her off.

Ash nodded and leaped behind her to use her barrier as cover, dodging and talking at the same time was needlessly difficult. "I need you to fire a gust of wind at them, like what you did when we meet. I'll hand the axe to you when I'm ready." He explained his plan, he might not have explain certain details but he couldn't waste time. Only them and two soldiers are left standing, she just needed to trust him on this.

Zenobia craned her neck slightly so she could see him, a look of obvious confusion on her face at his plan. "Didn't I tell you those bursts of wind can't do anything in a real fight? Why do you want me to use them?" she questioned dumbfounded, did he forget what she told him? The sound of glass cracking caused her to focus on her barrier, her barrier couldn't take this punishment for too much longer.

 _ **Crap!!!**_ _**Why is she so much stronger than me?**_! Zenobia hated to admit, she really hated to admit it, but that redhead blade was just stronger than her. She was pumping out more power than her and this current situation was caused by that difference of power. _I need to trust him. Like he's trusted me._ She thought to herself, a healthy driver and blade relationship was based on trust and understanding. He's trusted her with his training and rarely complained, she as to trust his plan now. "Alright. Ready when you are."

Ash smiled and nodded, hopefully this will work. He couldn't guarantee anything, this was a gamble. He ran past Zenobia, axe in hand, and rushed towards Rex, he first needed to remove the pressure on his blade. As he expected, when his opponent noticed him trying to close the gap, he refocused his attacks on him to keep him back. The attacks hit the floor kicking up plenty of dust. Perfect. "Zenobia now!" He shouted, swatting another fireball into the ground.

"Got it!" Zenobia shouted, dropping her barrier as wind began to gather around her, swirling around her violently as it kicked up even more dust. She thrusted her arms forward causing a powerful gust of wind to rush forward. The wind slammed into everyone, stumbling Nia and the remaining soldiers, but didn't knock anyone down. What it did do was kick up a giant dust cloud and pushed it towards Rex's direction, consuming everyone but Ash and her.

"What the bloody hell is this!" Nia shouted out, in between coughing and rubbing her eyes. The dust was getting everywhere, in her eyes and up her nose. It was really messing up her senses.

" **My lady, watch out!!!** " Dromarch shouted in panic, slamming into her and knocking her onto the group. A mere second later a bayonet whizzed past where her head used to be, possible lethal attack. "Their driver seems to have created this dust, hampering us. The same can't be said for our opposition. I, unfortunately, lack the means to dispel it," he commented, leaping in front of her and preparing a barrier just as two gunshots were heard.

 _That clever dastard!_ She thought hissing, pulling her cloak over her mouth to stop any dust from getting in. She didn't expect a stunt like this, she honestly thought Rex had him under control. Those helmets must give them the advantage. Those metal buckets they wear protect them from all this dust, explains why they can still shot at her.

 _What the hell?_ Rex thought, squinting his eyes trying to locate hid opponent. He really wanted to put his diving helmet on so he shouldn't deal with dust in his eyes. Too bad with Gramps using it as a makeshift perch it be too tight a fit for the both of them. "Pyra! You can see them?!" he shouted out, hopefully blade eyes were better than human ones. He couldn't see anything.

Pyra tried her best to scan for anything, possibility her opponent trying to rush given their situation. She could make out some shadowy figures through the dust but nothing else. "I think I see them Rex! But they don't seem to trying to rush us!" she shouted back to her driver, slightly confused. They set this up so it's surprising that they aren't trying to press their advantage.

Ash grinned victoriously, he couldn't be happier that it worked out just the way he hoped. His grin faded to a more serious look as he gripped his axe tightly in both hands, now wasn't the time to gloat over a small victory. Time for phase two. " **Zenobia, your up!!!** " he yelled, throwing the massive weapon towards his blade, the axe spinning rapidly towards her.

The blade grinned widely, she wasn't expecting her driver to use her power in such a way. He's creative she'll give him that. She grabbed the weapon with practiced ease by the hilt, like she's done this for years instead of just a day. " **With pleasure!!!** " she yelled back, green ether radiating out of her. Time to see if their opponents will like having the shoe on the other foot. " **Storm of blades!!!** "

Suddenly, Zenobia began swiping her axe in front of her from several angles, vertically, horizontally, diagonally and every angle in between. Each swipe creating a wind blade that headed towards her enemies. With her wind powers, she could swing her axe over a dozen times in a few seconds. Meaning a near endless stream of projectiles headed towards their currently blind opponents.

" **Rex!!!** " Pyra shouted out in fear, noticing a number of shadows heading towards them. Hearing their opponents shouting at each other, she knew that a blade special was heading towards them. She rushed towards her driver, surprising him since he didn't know what was happening, and put up a barrier in front of them. Just in time as well.

The first air blade slammed and exploded harshly against her barrier, the barrier shaking at the impact. Soon enough, the rest of the pack arrived, hitting the barrier with equal force from the first, each exploding . Each impact pushed them back and causing tiny cracks to form on the barrier, a sign that the protection won't last indefinitely. The wind blades did at least clear up the dust, the wind blades opening up the dust clouds and the explosions they caused on impact dispersing the dust cloud further.

" **Hahaha!!!** " Zenobia laughed boastfully, loud enough for everyone to here. She felt such satisfaction turning the tables on them, if they weren't going to face them like real warriors than they will receive the same treatment. Sadly, the ether around her was starting to vanish, she couldn't keep up the special much longer. _We're gonna need to finish this soon._ her lips puckered in thought, she wasn't sure the barrier will drop before her special ran dry.

" **Zenobia!!!** " Ash yelled, catching her off guard but she refocused on him while keeping her attack going. Her driver was running towards the brown haired teen and his blade, no longer obstructed by a flurry of flames. He was only a few meters away from them, easily within striking range. " **Pass it over here!!!** " he ordered, hand raised waving not sure if she was paying attention to him.

Zenobia raised an eyebrow at his action, but nodded finally understanding, this was just another part of his plan. He's closed the gap, now they have to fight our way. she grinned seeing the whole plan finally, they took control of the flow of battle. As the ether around her finally disappeared and the last air blade was fire, she threw axe towards the ground near his feet. She wasn't confident he could catch it like how she did, she didn't need her driver to lose a finger or two… or a whole arm.

The axe slammed into the ground, cracking it heavily, just near where Ash was standing within grasping distance. He grabbed the axe eagerly and rushed towards the still defending duo, the air blades still hammering them for the moment. He maneuvered the weapon to his side, he wanted to use one of his other driver arts. Just as he neared them, he twisted his entire body and pumped as much aura he could into his arms. So much so wisps of aura escaping from them.

" **Cyclone Swings!!!** " he yelled, swinging the axe horizontally into the barrier Rex and Pyra were defending themselves with. Between the assault from Zenobia and now the powerful, aura infused, driver art, the barrier shattered entirely. However, that wasn't the end of the driver art. Using the momentum of the first swing and twisting his entire body, he was able to swing again in one fluent movement.

The axe was rushing towards Pyra, wide eyed that an attack was heading directly at her. " **Pyra!!!** " Rex shouted, pushing her out of the way of the attack, unintentionally placing himself in its way instead. He raised his sword and intercepted the attack, if he didn't he could gravely wounded if the attack hit him straight on.

The power of the axe swing was so great, due to the heavy aura usage, it actually lifted Rex off his feet. " **Gahhhh!!!** " the brown haired teen shouted in pain, his finger crying out at the pressure placed on them. The attack sent him flying towards Nia, who was able to dodge due to the clear up dust. He lost air and his body ragged doll onto the ground harshly, the pebbles and derby cutting into his exposed sections of his arm. After traveling a good six meters, his momentum finally stopped and his body came to a halt, his body not moving.

 _Did I over do it?_ Ash thought to himself, a look of concern and regret appearing on his face. His thoughts were interrupted when he heard Pyra scream out in pain. He turned to look at her and noticed a number of cuts on her arms, even a few on her face. _**What's going on with her?!**_ he never hit her once during this battle, so where did these injuries come from?

"This isn't over yet…" someone spoke, catching Ash off guard. The raven haired teen turn his head to see Rex getting up, stabbing his sword into the ground to help himself get up. His arms had several cuts, a few deep enough to draw blood, some bruising and few noticeable ones on his face. Pyra's eye lit up with relief that her driver was alright. She ran quickly to his side ignoring Ash's presence entirely.

Relief filled Ash seeing brunette get back up, he wasn't sure his conscious could take killing another human being. "Let's just stop this. I don't want to harm or kill anyone. Just surrender and we can end this." he pleaded, the excitement and joy he got from fighting them fading. He had one more reason for trying to end the fight, a more tactical reason.

He's burned through roughly half his aura since the fight started. He used it not only augment his attacks but also his speed to move, he was fast but not fast enough to dodge dozens of fireballs. Soon enough, that Nia girl is gonna finish off the last of patrol mates, no way he could beat both of them at once. He probably couldn't with a full tank of aura.

"Thanks for the offer. Your a real gentleman for offering," an accented voice spoke out, sarcasm obvious in its voice. Two silhouette appeared in the remnants of the dust cloud he made, one human and one distinctly animalistic. The individuals walked through the dust and reveal themselves to be Nia and her white tiger blade, causing Ash to curse mentally.

Ash looked around seeing the sprawled bodies of his allies, they didn't seem too injured to run the risk of death. He closed his eyes and used his aura to feel out to theirs, if they were dead they wouldn't have any aura.

He used this move a few times since he got here and found some strange results. The soldiers, captain, and a large number of most people he's met had very little aura, compared to humans from back home at least. All the drivers he meet have aura on average to folks back home, which could be the reason they can resonate with blades. Blades were purely made out of an unknown energy with some aura thrown in. Would explain why only certain people could resonate with blades and the consequences of them.

Ash let out a sigh, none of their aura was gone or had any risk of fading. _Seems these guys are good people._ He thought a smile on his face, looks like he was right. These guys had no reason to spare the soldiers, they were enemies and the soldiers probably weren't giving the same treatment. But they did anyway, he doubted a truly evil person would show mercy like that.

"What are you smiling about?" Nia asked arms crossed, guy was facing two drivers and he was smiling right now. Was he one of those battle hungry maniacs?

"It's nothing. Just remembered something is all, nothing of importance," he told her dismissively, even if he did tell her why she'd just call him nuts. Only Brock, May, and Max actually know about him being an aura guardian. He raised the axe and placed the upper hilt comfortable on his shoulder, Zenobia floated closer to him eying her opponents. "I'm guessing that's a no to my offer?" He asked craning his neck, seems he'll be forced to fight after all.

"A definite no," Nia said eyebrow raised, well it doesn't matter why he was smiling. He seemed like a weird guy anyway, comparatively. She's meet really weird people,including all of Torna and her current company. She raised her one of her weapon and began twirling around her hand, Rex was hurt so it's best to heal him. She'd rather not deal with this guy one on one, she's tired after having to fight so many soldiers.

Ash raised his own eyebrow seeing her spin her weapon, a chakram if he remembered correctly, around her hand. A strange thing to do during a fight. Suddenly, a green shimmer started to radiate off the weapon. Soon, the shimmer turned into waves of green energy that spread out and washed over Rex, his wounds glowing. The injuries started to fade until they were completely gone, like the guy didn't even just tossed harshly on the floor a minute ago.

 _ **That ain't fair!!!**_ Ash thought in despair, his eyes widening at the sight of the healed teen, who was rolling his shoulders making sure he was alright. He knew certain blades could heal, Zenobia told him the basics, but he didn't know which. This changes everything, he definitely couldn't really beat them now. Nia is just gonna heal them whenever they get hurt and Rex will definitely not let him take out Nia. "This is troublesome. Real troublesome…" he mumbled to himself, noting that Pyra's injuries disappeared as well.

Zenobia nodded her head in agreement, this was definitely not a good position for them. "Honestly seven trained soldiers can't beat a single driver? You guys really are just fodder," she said coldly, a look of disappointment on her face as she scanned the fallen soldiers. A few moaned out, the captain and single other soldier slowly getting up, but no one dared to refute her claim. "Seems we have to clean up this lots mess," she said arms cross and a grin on her face, she was always ready for a challenge.

Ash nodded, not bothering to chastise her for her rude comments of their allies, too focus on the fight to scold her. His mind was running a mile a minute to figure out a strategy to actually win, coming up with only blanks. "I ain't gotta a clever plan for this partner, I doubt the dust trick will work a second time…" he mumbled to his blade, fool me once shame on you and all that.

"Yeah. I don't think their stupid enough for it, probably anyway," she joked, trying to lighten the mood of her driver. She knew that this wasn't a good situation. "I say we rush them and show them what we got," she suggested, if they were gonna lose than they'll go out fighting and hopefully beat one of them.

"Fortune favours the bold right..?" though, Ash wasn't sure if this was boldness or desperation. Probably a combination of both. " **Let's go!!!** " He yelled charging forward towards the two drivers, no point in delaying the inevitable. Zenobia floated right behind, her near ever ending grin plastered on her face.

"Seems like he's run out of clever plans for us," Nia said out loud, noting her last standing opponent simply charging towards them. She looked down at her blade Dromarch eyebrow raised, asking her blade an unspoken question. The white tiger merely nodded his head in confirmation to her nonverbal request. She craned her neck to Rex, who appeared perfectly fine from the earlier scuffle. "Let's end this with a blade combo?" she asked her new comrade, she didn't want to prolong this fight anymore than necessary.

Rex held his blade up high and hummed in thought before nodding. "Yeah let's. This guy seems like the stubborn type, reminds me of myself honestly. We'll need to hit him with something heavy to knock him out for good," he spoke, agreeing with her plan of dealing with their enemy. They've been wasting too much time here.

"Start us off than," Nia told him, readying herself for her part in the combo. She needed Rex to start the chain.

"Got it! Let's go Pyra!" Rex shouted looking at Pyra from the corner of his eye, his blade raised high ready to use her special. All he needed was for her to grasp it with him.

"Of course! I'm with you Rex!" she shouted back, but she seemed to lack the conviction and enthusiasm as her driver. She stared at the raven haired teen that was charging towards them, roughly ten meters separating them. Sorry about this. You're a good person, just following orders. She thought to herself with minor regret, she didn't wish to harm him. Whatever energy he was radiating off his body felt warm and inviting, no malicious intent at all despite them fighting. It felt the complete opposite of Malos.

She grasped the hilt of the sword, her hand just above Rex's, causing her and him to glow gold with ether. They both shouted in unison, " **Burning Sword!!!** " causing a large blade of flame to shoot out of the sword several meters high, causing Ash to stop to stare at the sight. They brought both of their arms down bring the massive pillar flame crashing down towards the raven haired teen, too shock at the attack to dodge.

Zenobia stopped right in front of driver and threw up another barrier in front of them, this one surrounding them entirely instead of just in front. The attack crashed into the barrier, causing cracks to form, and flames surrounded the two on all sides, trapping them in place. " **Now's not the time to space out Ash!!!** " she yelled at him, not turning her head to look at him too busy trying to keep up the barrier.

" **Sorry!!!** " he yelled back, looking around trying to find a way out of their current predicament. We're trapped indefinitely. We'll be fried if we try and get out of the barrier. Even with the protection of the barrier, Ash was starting to sweat profusely. He'd hate to be outside of the barrier if he was already frying on the inside. "We can only weather this storm Zenobia…" the only possible way out was going below the ground, an ability they sadly don't have.

"Yeah I figured…" Zenobia grumbled, keeping barrier up as sweat start roll down her body. More cracks appeared on her barrier and existing cracks grew larger, her barrier couldn't take too much more of a beating.

" **Nia your up!!!** " Rex shouted, his attack starting to die down slowly. They couldn't give him even a second of an opening, he'll pounce at any opening they gave him. They couldn't give him even a second to recuperate.

" **Got it! Dromarch end this!!!** " Nia yelled, throwing her to rings towards her partner. The rings stopped just in front of his head and he let out a deafening roar, the rings acting like amplifiers increasing the volume.

" **Wild roar!!!** " Dromarch roared out, causing a physical wave of sound and water to head Ash's way.

The flames about died down but before Ash and his blade could make a break for it, the wave slammed into the barrier stopping them in place. " **So loud!!!** " he yelled out, covering his ears with his hands trying to block out the sound. It felt like his eardrums were gonna burst if he didn't block out the sound.

All around them steam started to rise and it felt like it was getting hotter, it was like being inside a kettle on the stove. The steam keep getting worse, it was almost like it was going to exploded. Given how the barrier was going to crack any moment this seemed like the end…

 _ **No! I won't accept this, we're stronger than this!!!**_ Ash thought teeth clenched, he wasn't going to accept this, not after all the training he did, he won't go down without a fight. His aura flared up around him, unnoticed by all due to the mist and Zenobia focusing on the barrier. Unknown to him, his aura was synthing into his axe and into the stream of ether, turning it a bright blue, connected to Zenobia's core crystal.

 _What's going on? What's this warmth and power I'm feeling?_ Zenobia thought confused, feeling her body rejuvenate with renewed strength, she never felt better! _I don't know what's going on but I do know what's going to happen!_ She pushed the new power she felt into her barrier, she could win this.

The cracks on the barrier started to fade, has if they were being repair, and the barrier changed from a yellow to a bright blue colour. The new barrier withstood the wild roar and even better insulated them from the harsh temperature outside, much to the relieve of Ash.

Soon, a massive explosion of steam rocked the barrier causing cracks to appear on the reinforced barrier, even allowing some steam to enter. However, the barrier didn't shower and the two remained untouched outside of some minor burns. " _We did it…_ " Ash whispered, his cloak of aura disappearing, ending the unintentional flow of aura to Zenobia.

" **ASH!!!** " the captain shouted slowly getting up, seeing one of his best recruits get caught in a steam bomb. The shockwave caused by the attack knocked him back onto the ground while shattering nearby windows and warping the wooden walls. The damage all around was severe and the town's folk now know something was happening after such an attack, this was a disaster. "I'm so sorry lad…" the captain whispered to himself, feeling guilt for possibly ending the live of a young man.

"Don't you think we let a little overboard? He could be dead!" Pyra shouted out, she didn't want this! She limited the power she used on her attack, she wanted to knock him out! Not outright kill him!

"I believe my wild roar utilized too much energy. I apologize my lady," Dromarch spoke up, slight guilt at his tone for not controlling his powers to the best of his ability.

Nia felt a knot in her stomach, she didn't mean to kill anyone. She hated killing people for needless reasons, like back when she first meet Rex. "We… We can't do anything about it now… let's just get out of here…" she told her blade and companions, eyes closed unable to see the mist slowly disappear.

" **No way!!!** " Rex shouted pointing towards the dissipating mist, seeing two shadowy figures standing in the middle of the mist. They couldn't have taken that and still be standing.

Ash swung his axe creating a gust of wind causing the remaining steam to disappear, revealing himself and Zenobia to all. The two appear mostly unharmed, if not a little toasty, except for himself was now breathing heavily but didn't know why. _My aura reserves took a hit. But why?_ He asked himself, unaware what transpired a few moments ago.

"He survived that… he doesn't even look hurt at all…" Nia spoke out loud, echoing the thoughts of everyone there. It shouldn't be possible someone for someone to be standing after that, let alone unharmed. _What is this kid?_

"You know… two against one ain't fair…" Ash told them with a look of annoyance mixed with exhaustion, he was seriously gonna eat a horse after this. He readied himself for another go, his two opponents doing the same after the shock wore off, but a voice cut off any further action.

"I concur with that statement," a female voice cut through the tense atmosphere. Suddenly, a wall of blue flame erupted out of the ground behind Rex and Nia cutting everyone off guard. The sound of heels clicking on the floor caught everyone's attention causing all to look towards the entrance to the back road.

A woman wearing a blue dress with blue hair walked towards the combatants, two rapiers in her hands. The woman was obviously a blade, she had two buns of hair that were ablaze with blue fire and her limbs were made of strange blue crystals with glowing tattoos over her eyes. The strangest thing was the fact her eyes were closed, not opening in the slightest. She seemed more ready for a ballroom dance than a fight, but Ash was sure she's not just a pretty face.

"Lady Brighid!" the captain shouted out surprised and bowing, seems she was important if the captain was acting like this.

"Captain… You seem ill equipped for capturing such deviants. I suggest your men prepare anti driver measures while I keep our troublemakers… company, until you return," the blade, that Ash knows now as Brighid, ordered the captain with tone reeking of authority. The blade didn't even wait for a response and kept walking forward, her heels clicking behind her while the captain grabbed whoever was able of standing and ran off the way they came.

Brighid stopped right beside him and gave him an appeasing look, he thought anyway. Hard to tell without seeing her eyes. "I'd like to join you in fighting these criminals, if that's fine by you? I know pride is quite important to some," she asked her rapiers burning with blue flames, he wasn't sure if she was trying to persuade with the display of power.

"Not at all, I welcome the help. Thank you lady Brighid," Ash responded, making sure to use her title. He wasn't sure if he'd get in trouble if he didn't, best be on the side of caution.

"Excellent, they will pay for ruining my little vacation and disturbing the peace," she said, her tone holding quite a bit of coldness, enough to send a chill down his spine. This fight sure has taken an interesting twist.

 **-Chapter ends-**

 **Well that ends this chapter folks, thank you kindly for all of your suggestion and I'll keep them in mind. Next chapter will be out whenever I can get up, so sorry for the wait.**

 **Anyway, I have a list of blades I'm considering for Ash which I'll show here going by element.**

 **Fire**

 **None**

 **Water**

 **Praxis**

 **Ice**

 **Perun, Godfrey, and Theory(if Praxis is chosen)**

 **Lighting**

 **Vess, Kora, and Electra**

 **Earth**

 **Nim and Wulfric**

 **Light**

 **KOS-MOS**

 **Darkness**

 **Kasandra and Azumi(she's more of a joke choice)**

 **Now to answer a question I've been ask: will I give Ash Pyra/Mythra to him.**

 **I don't know, the only way he could get them would be Rex to die or I shoehorn something, like them splitting up. It's not off the table but it's gonna be weird working it in.**

 **also, i know thats not Zenobia's first blade art. i made it up based on her awakening animation, couldnt remember the real one.**


	4. Escalation of Events

**Chapter four here! Sorry for the long wait, finding the will to write but having so many ideas in your mind sucks. Hopefully though, I'll post the next one sooner.**

 **Anyway i wanted to explain a few things. Yes Ash can power up his blades by giving them aura. However, he only has a finite amount and he also needs it to strength himself. So he can't just go nuts with his Aura. He needs to strategically use his supply.**

 **Anyway, let's start the chapter after these warnings.**

 **Xenoblade Chronicles belongs to Monolith Studios and Pokémon belongs to Gamefreak. I own and profit nothing from this!**

 **-Chapter Starts-**

The tense atmosphere was so thick between the four individuals, seven if you counted each driver's blade, that it can be cut through with a knife. Or any of the assorted weapons each individual have, it was honestly like small armory between them.

Ash's eyes wandered to look at his new surprising ally and the faintest blush rose to his cheeks, she's quite the attractive woman. Despite the opinion of his friends, and that of anyone who meet him, he did in fact have some knowledge of romance and could in fact feel physically attracted to a female, like now. He wasn't just insanely obvious like a certain gym leader friend.

Ash was entirely focused on his goal of becoming a pokémon master and decided having a girlfriend would be a needless distraction, he knew relationships could be really high maintenance and time consuming. Also, unlike Brock, he wasn't easily attracted to a women, he could count all the women he was attracted to in one hand, two of them were fighting beside him right now. Zenobia and Brighid are possibly the two most attractive women he knows, and he knew a lot of women. He's curious what would happen if Brock ever meet Zenobia, he'd probably have a heart attack and a nosebleed

"Brighid. Where's your driver? Won't you be considerably at a disadvantage?" Ash asked her eyebrow raised, this was the first time he's ever seen a blade without a driver nearby. Zenobia told him a blade weren't tied to there driver by the hip, they could be on two seperate Titans and the blade would be fine, however in battle it was a different story. Without a driver, a blade would be very limited in the power department and their powers be harder to control. A blade could train to remove the latter issue but not the former.

The purple haired woman turned her head slightly to look at him, their enemy distracted by a flying rodent or something along those lines. Her lips quirked up a little, Ash wasn't sure if it was smile or just a grin, before speaking. "Your concern for my well being is appreciated, truly it is young man. However, I can hold my own against most without my driver," she reassured him she'll be fine, she seemed pleased with his concern instead of offended that he'd question her strength and ability.

She refocused her attention onto her enemies, her lips returning to a more neutral position, however seemed something caught her attention. She stared at the blade known as a Pyra and mumbled something under her breath, "That core crystal… is she really the blade of legends? The Aegis..." her tone was very quiet but Ash was able to catch her words, peaking his interest.

 _A blade of legend?_ Ash thought to himself, was it like his world with legendary pokémon? He knew from experience that legendary pokémon were a tier of their own, able to create new continents or flood the world to name a few of their possible abilities. _Makes sense why Zenobia is no match at range against her._ He knew all too well how difficult facing a legend head to head can be, he lost an entire team of six just to beat two of them.

"I'll take the brunette on," Ash suggested his body tensing up quite a bit, he thought that plan was the best course of action. Despite the difference of strength between blades, he was confident that his aura gave him the advantage. In close range anyway. If she could take down the healer, than victory would be assured.

"I disagree. I wish to… test that blade," Brighid said politely disagreeing with his plan, though do to her own personal curiosity not because she disagreed with what he was strategizing. She wanted to confirm if this blade was truly the Aegis, visuals alone was not enough to confirm status. Only through combat alone, and seeing her power first hand, would she truly know if she was the Aegis.

Ash raised an eyebrow at her but didn't complain, merely shrugging his shoulders. If she could order the captain around means she was his superior, in some fashion anyway, which meant she was his as well. He couldn't argue with her and not do what she says without possibly getting in trouble, last person he saw doing that had to clean the barracks toilets. All of them. Which was Greum. For flirting with a female officer, funnily enough. "Alright. They're all yours."

Ash turned his gaze to Nia and sighed, he was kinda disappointed that he couldn't finish his battle with Rex. He hated leaving a battle unfinished. Well a pokemon battle anyway. He pumped aura into his legs and charged forward towards Nia with Zenobia following, his new speed allowing him to reach the midway point in only a few seconds.

"bugger he's a fast one!" Nia shouted out in surprised, what was this guy? Somehow he withstood their most powerful attack and now he's fast enough to rival some blades in speed.

Rex however knew how fast his opponent was from their earlier skirmish, and knew a few ways to counter. His blade erupted in flame once more before swinging the blade horizontally, creating another blade of blade like earlier but also different. This attack was far wider and taller than the first, making the attack impossible to get around.

Ash hit the breaks and raised his axe high, he felt confident that he could create a opening in the attack, causing it to pass by him with only minor burns on his outfit. _What's that sound coming from behind me?_ He thought to himself turning his head, it sounded vaguely familiar…

A blue wave fire was heading towards him, or just slightly to his left, obvious meant to intercept his enemies attack. The blue wave wasn't going to sandwich him, it was vertical compared to Rex's horizontal attack, but the explosion the two attacks will create will hit him.

But to his surprise, Brighid's attack actually cut through Rex's, like a hot knife through butter. Like Ash before, Rex was shocked that his attacking was easy overwhelmed, so much so that Nia had to tackle him out of the way. The attack surprisingly just dispersed before making contact with anything, like she dispelled the attack to limit collateral damage.

Ash stood there in awe, the remaining flames sailing past him harmlessly slamming into the stone walls of the buildings. _Me and Zenobia couldn't even come close to matching their ranged attacks. Brighid easily turned that around, without a driver._ Admittedly, this attack was less powerful since he traded power for a greater area. Still, he bet in straight power they're roughly equal but it seemed she had better control over her power.

"She's strong… and she doesn't even have a driver," Rex spoke out, slowly getting up off the ground has Nia got off him. He honestly didn't expect her to cut through his attack like it was sheet of wet paper. If this was her without a driver, he'd hate to see her with one.

"That's to be expected my boy. Brighid is the jewel of Mor Ardian, strongest blade in the Empire. Underestimating her is awfully foolish, even without her driver," Gramps spoke out, flying out of Rex's diving helmet stretching his tiny body. "Also, please be more careful. If you keep getting tossed around like that, you'll find titan pulp in your helmet soon," he whined out, metal was not a good material to slam your back into repeatedly. If this keeps up, he'll have a crooked wing by the end of the day.

"I'll keep that in mind but I won't be making any promises, this isn't exactly an easy fight Gramps," that would be an underestimate of the year, this fight has really turned against them in one swoop. At least before they had a few advantages over their enemy, now all those advantages have went up in flames. He charged forward towards Brighid, hopefully this would be the opposite with Ash, she's stronger at a range but weaker in melee. One could hope at least.

Brighid notice her enemy charge but simply stood in place, waiting his arrival. _s_ _eems he believes he can best me in swordplay_ she thought to herself, slightly amused at the thought of this obviously young driver can defeat her. She wasn't being arrogant, only seeing the most likely outcome of them fighting, though he seemed to have a natural talent. She has years of combat experience with her driver, something her opponent lacks.

Rex, only having a single meter separating them, jumped into the air and performed a forward flip. " **Rolling smash!!!** " He yelled, his blade exploding into flames, he was gonna hit her with his strongest blade art!

Brighid simply raised one of her rapiers, holding it in a diagonal angle, and took a single step to the left. Rex's blade made contact with the rapier but easily slid down the length of the weapon, leaving her completely unharmed and exposing the teen to a counter. She swung her other blade at the brunette, aiming a slash for his shoulder.

Rex twisted his body, trying to limit the damage he was going to receive. The last ditch effort rewarded him with a shallow cut on his shoulder, a significantly less painful punishment for his action. He leaped to the side a meter, wanting to avoid a follow-up attack from the blade. Unfortunately, Brighid launched herself forward and began to take the offensive. _Well there goes that thought!_ he thought to himself, doing his best to block his enemies barrages of slashes and thrusts.

"She's really impressive huh Zenobia?" Ash asked his blade, wandering what his blade's opinion was on their ally. His blade didn't say a thing, causing him to look at her confused by her silence, she was usually really vocal. To his surprise, she seemed to have a look of annoyance on her face.

 _Am I going to get showed up by every blade I meet?_ Zenobia thought to herself seriously annoyed, first that red haired blade and now this purple haired one. She hated feeling useless like this, she honestly felt like her driver was carrying her since she couldn't match up to the enemies blade. To somebody like herself, proud and boastful, that was a serious blow to her.

Ash simply sighed, it seemed Zenobia was too lost in her thoughts to respond. He wanted to ask what was wrong but unfortunately this wasn't the place or time to start having an emotional conversation.

He suddenly raised his weapon, blocking a downward slash from Nia, who tried to take advantage of his momentary distraction. "You know it's rude to attack someone when they're talking with someone else!" he shouted, moving his head slightly to avoid a diagonal swing from her other chakram in her free hand. He pushed her back using the hilt of his weapon, causing her stumble slightly, before retaliating with a vertical swing aimed at her waist. Sadly, she was able to back flipped out of danger, she's quite acrobatic.

"Well it was rude of yah to laugh at me! We're even now!" Nia shouted back angrily, annoyed that he'd call her rude after what he's done. She rushed at him once more, noticing he was taking more time to recover from his swings. Seemed he wasn't perfectly fine after their skirmish, his movements were more sluggish and slow. "It seems your tough guy act is merely that, an act!" she shouted, unleashing a flurry of swings, the two chakrams coming from different angles.

Ash was taking steps back while he tried his best to defend himself, using his axe's massive girth as a shield to block the attacks. Despite his best efforts, he was receiving cuts on his arms and hands, nothing too deep but it was still painful. _I won't last much longer._ He thought grimly walking back, slowly pushed backing up towards the underpass of the bridge.

His aura was a wonderful thing, but it wasn't a miracle that can fix all his problems. His aura was doing it's best to keep his body going, stopping his bleeding and soothing his pains, but the damage was still there and his aura was too low to augment his physical attributes. "The only reason you can say that is because I've been through way worse than you in this fight!" he shouted back at her, taking another horizontal swing. He won't go down without a fight, he'll be defiant until the end like he always was when faced with a problem.

Nia expertly ducked under the swing, she could feel the wind made by attack tingle her ears, before launching herself forward. It was time to finally knock this stubborn bastard out! "Your open!" she shouted, swinging both of her weapons upwards to cut into his chest. With that chest armor of his, it shouldn't kill him but was definitely going to hurt him.

Ash stared wide eyed as he saw the blades move closer to him. It was like time slowed down for him, the blades felt like they took minutes to reach while he was exactly too slow to do anything. _This is gonna hurt…_ he thought to himself, somewhat disappointed with himself. Is this how his first battle has a driver is gonna end? Laying in the dirt beaten and unable to help? It's almost has much as a shame as is first gym battle against Brock.

Has the teen closed his eyes, accepting his defeat, but the sound of metal grinding up against something caught his attention. The sound cause Ash to open his eyes and they widened at the sight. A yellow barrier separated him and stopped her attack dead, the impact causing the cat girl to stumble back.

Suddenly, the barrier disappeared and Zenobia zoomed into his sight, now being in front of Nia. She lifted her right leg and launch a roundhouse kick aimed towards Nia's chest. The cat girl raised her chakrams to block the blow, the blades of the weapons digging into her leg in a painful matter. Despite the block, his blade's super strength kick sent the criminal tumbling away five whole meters, her body grinding painfully on the floor.

Zenobia stared down her opponent, who got up relatively quickly despite the power of the kick. "It ain't an act… my driver goes through my hellish training everyday! **He's earned being called a tough guy!!!** " she shouted back at Nia, nobody insults her driver, even the slightest offense is gonna get a knuckle sandwich from her. Or a roundhouse kick in this case.

"Zenobia? Finally came out of that trance of yours huh?" Ash asked her smiling, he was really glad that she came through for him. He honestly thought it was the end of him there, well in this fight anyway. He was sure she wasn't going to kill him.

"Yeah I did. Sorry about that, just some annoying thoughts is all. How about you?" Zenobia asked back, turning her head slightly to look him in the eye. "You stood there and had a look of defeat on you. Where's that typhoon I saw before?" she asked him further, almost a hint of disappointment in her tone. "I expect you to go out the same way you came into this world, kicking and screaming. Got it?" she had a grin on her face, he only needed a reminder and she'll remind him anytime.

Ash couldn't help but chuckle at her words, he was acting a bit melodramatic there for a second there. "Your right, sorry about that. I blame you for that, looking like a lost bunny a moment ago," he talked back to her, no way was he going to let her have the last word.

Zenobia couldn't help but chuckle at his comment. "A bunny huh? I'm one of the most powerful blades in the world and you see me as a bunny?" The thought alone was incredibly amusing to her, she'd love to understand the logic of his comment.

"It seems they've regained their will to fight my lady, troublesome," Dromarch noted, standing beside his lady has she placed a hand on him to help pull herself up.

"Yeah I can see that Dromarch…" Nia said getting back, annoyance in her tone. It was quite annoying seeing her two opponents chatting and laughing while she was here, were they ignoring her. _How's Rex doing on his front?_ She thought, turning her head to look at her ally's fight against the solo blade. But honestly, she shouldn't have even bothered.

" **GAHHH!!!!** " Rex yelled, sliding several meters and stopping beside Nia, stabbing the sword into the ground to stopping his momentum. He had a number of cuts on his arms and on his outfit, obviously things weren't going his way. "Guessing… things ain't going too well with you either..?" he asked in between heavy breaths, dear Architect was he exhausted. Pyra came rushing towards his sides, checking up on him worried for his health.

"What tipped you off to that idea?" Nia asked back sarcastically, she was honestly mad about this situation. If they had knocked out that one driver, they could've bolted and wouldn't be dealing with this. "Let's double team the purple haired blade. We take her out and that wall of fire behind us should disappear, than we can make a run for it." she explained, they really had no other option other than trying to run past their enemies. Yeah, she wasn't feeling suicidal enough today to try the latter one.

"Got it… I'll hit her with something from a distance and you attack her from up close." Rex told her, pulling his sword out of the ground and nodding his head at Pyra, who nodded back in confirmation. Without waiting for response from Nia, he lifted his weapon up as it exploded in flame and swung it downwards. Like when he first fought Ash, the swing created another wave of flame, smaller and more intense than the one Brighid countered, aimed at the blade.

Brighid's rapier exploded into flame in response to the attack, it seemed he didn't learn his lesson from earlier. Seems she'll have to re-educate him on that lesson. She mimicked the gesture of her opponent, firing off her own wave of flames with the only difference being the colour.

The two attacks rushed at each other and meet at the midway point, though slightly more towards Brighid and Ash's side since Rex fired off his attack first. When the attacks, and just has Ash thought earlier, the two attacks couldn't overwhelm the other and they simply exploded.

A wave of heat hit Ash before being followed by shards of rocks and dirt knocking into him, causing to him to raise his arms to his face in case. He didn't need a piece of rock or dirt from entering into his eyes, maybe Brighid had the right idea of keeping her eyes permanently closed. He wouldn't have to be dealing with this.

When the barrage of shrapnel ended, Ash stared at the large dust cloud in thought. _Are they trying to use my own maneuver?_ he thought scanning the dust cloud, it seemed eerily familiar to what he tried against them.

And, not to, his surprise, Nia and her blade, with one chakram in his jaw surprisingly, jumped out of the dust cloud. The two seemed to use the dust cloud to cover their movements. The two were midair and descending towards Brighid, obviously their changed their game plan and were trying to focus on his ally. To bad for them, he didn't like getting ignored in a fight.

He rushed in front of Brigid, Zenobia in tow, and readied himself to launch an air blade at the duo. They couldn't dodge midair and he hasn't seen her use any ranged attacks outside of her blade special, it seemed like she's seriously opened herself to an attack. _Well, her problem not mine._ He thought shrugging his shoulders, maybe she didn't think the attack through.

Wind gathered around his axe's head, a sure sign of him launching an attack. He pulled back his arms to the side readying his arms for a vertical swing, the best direction to hit both of his opponent. He swung his weapon, launching the air blade, however his attack didn't connect with its intended target.

Just has he swing, Ash saw two strange glowing nets fly past him and hit his opponents, ensnaring them and causing them to fly back slightly before crashing onto the floor. This caused his attack to sail harmlessly overhead before crash into a massive tree root, causing a deep cut into the bark." **Got her captain! See that shot?!** " a voice shouted excitedly from behind him catching his attention.

Ash turned his head to look who shouted, and who also probably shot the net. To his mild surprise, he saw the captain and the soldier he ran off with earlier. He couldn't remember the name, he couldn't tell any of them apart unless they spoke or didn't wear their helmets. They should use name tags so they distinguish each other better, it was honestly bothersome.

The two men seemed to be carrying a form of net gun, though its design wasn't anything he's ever seen before, looked both simplistic and complex. Especially since it seemed like the two were having trouble. " **Stop celebrating!!! Help me reload so we can capture the other criminals!!!** " seems the reloading process was difficult, the soldier seemed to have nearly ensnared himself using the net has he tried to load said net into the gun.

Ash turned his back to look at the trapped Nia, didn't seem like he could help the two and honestly he didn't desire to. He noted that she couldn't get out despite having her weapon, actually the blue energy that made up the cutting edge of her weapon disappeared. "What's going on with her?" he asked out loud to himself, was the net for the reason of this? We're they the anti-driver measures?

"Those nets not only stop the flow of ether between driver and blade but also disables a blade's ability to draw ether from the atmosphere. Without these abilities, blades aren't much different from a regular human." Brighid explained out loud, to answers Ash's question or to answer the look of confusion on Nia's and Rex's face, he didn't know. Good to know either way.

" **NIA!!!** " Rex yelled out, running towards his trapped friend, obviously intent at freeing her of her bindings. Before he could reach her however, Brighid created another, smaller, wall of flame between the two of them, causing him to stumble back slightly. This was not Good!

" **Rex!!!** " Nia yelled back, continuing to struggle in vain against her bindings. " **Take Pyra and get out of here!!!** " he couldn't win this fight, they were outnumbered and she couldn't fight now. Soon enough, the two idiots will load another net, better just her and Dromarch get caught than all of them.

"But I can't just-" he tried to say before getting cut off, forced to roll away has a pair of flaming bladed whips struck where he was. She wasn't letting up in the slightest. _How could I even get out of here?_ Rex thought looking around, behind him was a wall of fire and in front of him were powerful opponents. He was gonna need a miracle to get out of this.

As if some divine entity heard his plight, something unexpected happen.

 _What was that?_ Ash thought to himself, he swore he heard a loud bang nearby and it wasn't any of them. Suddenly, he saw a baseball sized projectile fly through the wall of flame before kept going in their direction. The projectile however was heading for them, in fact it's going over head.

The object slammed into the bridge over head and Ash turned his head to look at the bridge, noticing a detail he didn't notice before. There was a large pipe connected to the on their side. Which was now ruptured. Suddenly, a huge amount of water surged out of the pipe and headed towards him, Zenobia, and Brighid. _So that's why they aimed high…_

The wave of water hit him head on and knocked off his hat instantly. He heard Brighid yell something out harshly, he couldn't hear properly with all the water in his ears. The downpour only lasted about ten seconds and he couldn't see anything, his long hair wet and heavy, now free of his hat, covered his eyes.

He pulled his hair apart to look at what happened while he was blinded. The wall of flame was gone and so was Rex along with his blade, they obviously escaped when the flames died down. Why it did, he didn't know. Nia and her blade was still here though, seems they couldn't afford to grab her.

"What happened there huh?" Zenobia spoke up, catching Ash's attention and causing his attention to shift to her. She was soaked just like himself, though her outfit didn't cling to her like it did himself. But that was probably because she wore so little. "All it took was some water to beat you? That's gonna look bad on the report," She commented to Brighid with a smirk, seems she enjoying the somewhat failure of their ally and superior. Why? he didn't know.

Before Ash could speak up and apologize for his blade's words, Brighid had already walked to her and stared into her eyes. Kinda. "And you would've done much better if it had been ice? Next time, hold your tongue despite how you feel about your inadequence compared to another," she fired back coldly, she definitely didn't hold back her words. He almost felt the cutting edge on that.

Zenobia smirk turned into a scowl and her fists clenched, it seemed she was ready to deck their superior. Luckily, Brighid turned her head to focus on Ash, thought simply getting ignored simply incense her further. "You fought admirably today. I'll question the captain further about what occurred before I arrived, which seems quite a bit. Don't worry…" she seemed to pause mid-sentence, turning her slightly has if looking at Zenobia from the corner of her eye. "your blade's words won't reflect on you," Ash flinched slightly, she was really digging into his blade.

Zenobia's anger was palpable, needling a prideful woman like her was a poor idea. Ash grabbed her arm, knocking her out of angry thoughts, before flashing her a smile. Surprisingly, she calmed down at his touch and smile, she was still annoyed though but most of her anger disappeared. _Just you wait. I'll grow stronger and I'll show you who the real 'Jewel of the Empire' will be!_ she thought glaring at Brighid, who was walking away towards the captain, giving out orders.

"Let's go back to the base. I can eat a all Armu right now," Ash said while scratching his stomach with his free hand, he was exhausted and starving right now. Maybe Brighid will let them get the rest of the day off, no way could he do drills after such a fight and so little aura.

"Yeah. I'm starved too. You better split that Armu with me," Zenobia joked nudging him with her elbow, all her past anger forgotten. Despite how energetic he was, he had a surprisingly soothing presence for her. "Let's get out of here before they ask me to help transport our friends," she pointed towards the downed Nia and Dromarch, who kept wiggling inside the nets.

Ash gave her a cheeky grin before grabbing her hand and running down the back road, ducking into a side street while the captain was helping soldiers get back on their feet. None were seriously injured so they shouldn't need his help that badly. Now out of sight, he briskly walked towards the base, Zenobia floating just behind him, her own grin on her face.

"Everybody seems to be alright. Private Ash, can you carry the prisoners…" the captain stopped mid-sentence, looking around for the now missing private. "Where in the heck did that boy go?" he asked loud, only getting shrugs from his men in response. "Guess we'll just have to carry them ourselves…"

 **\- Next Day: Afternoon-**

"Come on ladies you can do three hundred sit ups! Those who can't have to do one hundred laps around the base!" Frang shouted out to his subordinates, which included Ash.

 _278...279...280_ Ash counted out mentally, performing the sit ups but was lagging behind everyone else but that only made sense. None of them were doing the exercise with a backpack filled with scrap metal on, courtesy of his blade. He wasn't sure which was heavier, the bag or Zenobia herself.

"So I heard you visited the criminal you captured this morning," Greum asked beside him, performing the exercise like everyone else. Ash couldn't see it, due to the fact he wore, but he knew he had a large grin on his face. "Gotta admit, a prison isn't the place I'd go to pick up ladies. Unless you only got the hots for that terrorist chick, wouldn't blame you though. She's a real cutie," he joked getting up, finishing the mandatory three hundred sit ups.

Ash didn't even bother commenting on his words, too focused on the exercise and knew that he'd just twist whatever he said to fit his perspective. He wasn't wrong though, he did visit Nia in the evening of yesterday, luckily he had the rest of yesterday off due to Brighid's word. He could easily remember that visit.

 _Ash opened the door to Torigoth's prison, the army base didn't have it's own so they used the local prison for all criminals. He noticed a lone guard sitting at a desk just near the entrance, his feet resting on the desk while reading a newspaper. He walked up to the guard and knocked on his guest. "excuse me? I wanna see a prisoner here," he never thought he'd ever say that in his life._

 _The guard out down and looked at Ash, noticing his uniform and Zenobia at his side. "Sure but your blade and her weapon have to stay outside, no weapons in the holding cells," he said removing his from on top of the desk, opening up a drawer on the desk and pulling out a key._

 _Ash nodded his head, couldn't risk some random guy with a blade breaking out a prisoner. He gestured his head to Zenobia to the door, implying what she had to do. The blade simply snorted in reply but did what he asked and left the building, but it was obvious begrudgingly._

 _With Ash's potential has a threat gone, well at least as far as the guard knew, the guard walked up to the door leading to the holding cells. "You came to see that Nia girl huh? Only criminal we caught in months, most hooligans run off into deeper parts of the Titan. We usually let the beasties deal with them," the jailer commented, shoving the key into the lock before turning it. He pushed the door open before walking inside, Ash following right behind him._

 _The holding cell block had the most metal he's seen in Torigoth, outside of the army base of course. Ash turned his head and noticed Dromarch, Nia's white tiger blade, was in an iron cell near the front. The two keep walking down the cells and he finally noticed Nia in the cell at the far back, furthest from her blade. The two stopped in front of her cell and the jailer turned to him._

 _"Here you are. Take as long as you like, she ain't going anywhere,'" the jailer said before turning away and walking the way he came, he got a breakfast to eat._

 _Nia sat on the bed of the cell, back leaning on the wall, and looked quite curious to why he came. "What do you want soldier boy? Here to gloat at how you helped caught me?" She asked annoyed, still upset at getting caught and still sore over the whole fight._

 _Ash stared into her eyes, almost like he's boring into her soul. "Your friend Rex escaped. Nobody knows where he is, guy just disappeared," he told her, his lips perking up into a grin. He was quite happy that the brunette got away, he and Zenobia wanted to fight him and his blade again. Without interference._

 _Nia looked up at him surprised, glad that her friends got away from the law but confused to why he was telling her. "That's good… their safe," she looked at the floor has she spoke, her own grin splitting on her face. She looked back up and stared into his eyes, getting off her seat. "But why tell me this? Is this some trick?" despite what she said, she saw no logic for him tricking her. They only just got here, she didn't know where they'd be hiding out._

 _"As a thank you," he told her smiling, turning his head to the entrance. "You could've killed those soldiers yesterday, and possibly me, when we fought. But you didn't. You went out of your to not kill them and I'm grateful for that. I know they won't see it like that… consider this me thanking you for them as well." h_ _e told her honestly, that was the only thing he really wanted to say to her. He owed her that much. "Your a good person Nia, I don't think you deserve to be in that cell. Too bad we couldn't meet on different terms before." He finished his statement, starting to walk towards the exit. He didn't have much else to say._

 _"You ain't half bad yourself soldier boy…" Nia said, just loud enough for him to hear, with a slight smile, the guy wasn't a bastard has she originally thought, hell he was kind of a decent person._

 _"Ash Ketchum." he corrected her, giving his name to her. Being called soldier boy was kinda annoying, he was defined by his job!_

Ash grinned happily at the moment just has he finished his last pull-up, it was always great for him to put a smile on someone's face. He unhooked the pack on his back, the backpack hitting the floor with an audible thud, before getting up and stretching. "Seems it's our free time Zenobia…" he said out loud, looking at her expecting her to demand him to do another grueling exercise.

"Yeah. Wanna head into town for a walk?" the blade asked him with a grin before slowly making her way towards the exit, she was expecting that response to take her driver a few minutes. He was too used to her working him to the bone.

Ash nodded and slowly got onto the ground, readying to do push-ups. He started perform them, counting up to ten, before what she said finally hit him. " **Really?!?!** " he shouted jumping back onto his feet, renewed energy filling at the thought of an actual break. He rushed up to her, walking beside her when he caught up.

Zenobia turned her head and smirked down at him, guy got excited too easily. "No, I'm going to make you do push-ups in the middle of the marketplace. Of course I mean it!" she told him, gently nudging him with her elbow though she did wanna punch his shoulder softly. But she could dislocate it if she did, so she didn't. "Consider it a reward. You did alright, could've been better, but you did better than expected." she complimented him, he definitely pulled his weight.

The duo suddenly stop when captain Pardrig stopped in front of them, hand rubbing his head for some reason. "Oh lad! I wanted to give you something…" he said looking around, trying to see if anyone was watching while free hand rummaged through his back pockets.

Ash blinked and tilted his head slightly, confused about what the captain wanted to give him. Is this some reward for yesterday? he thought searching the back of his mind, maybe he was just generous and handing out the gifts. That would be nice of them.

"I wanted to give you something since for what happened yesterday… we were under prepared for the situation," the captain said looking to the side, seemingly embarrassed at simply rushing the capture of the terrorist. "Anyway, I tried to get Consul Dugall to give you the bounty for her, not really a large sum. He was…. against the idea," he chuckled softly, the verbal lashing he got for the suggestion was quite the sight. Didn't compared to getting knocked across the face with a vase, the Consul had surprising strength for someone of his… body type.

Ash raised an eyebrow at the chuckling, while Zenobia looked bored of the talking and simply walked past the gate to the base, heading to Torigoth. He never meant Dugall but heard other people talk about the guy, quite the mix opinion on the chubby man. He was pompous and quite arrogant, on the other hand he was actually pretty good at running the place, so the locals tolerate him.despite the bad attitude. "You don't need to award me captain. I'm just glad our comrades are fine and will be back in action in a day," He told him brushing off his desire to award him, he wasn't much of materialistic person himself anyway.

"That they will but you still deserve a reward for your efforts, the Empire rewards excellency and so do I. I won't accept no for an answer." Padriag said determinedly, Dugall may not believe in rewarding troops for 'just doing their duty', but he did for an excellent performance. After searching his pockets he finally grasped what he was looking for and pulled it out to reveal Ash's prize, a core crystal. "I got permission to give you this from Lady Brighid herself, you have to accept. Don't want to disrespect the strongest blade around eh lad?" he joked, pushing the core crystal to him.

Ash sighed, well he did have a point there, he couldn't say no if she herself thought he deserved it. He grabbed the core crystal and pocketed it swiftly, he didn't want to resonate with it immediately and wasn't sure what caused his first awakening to trigger. Best get out of his hand quickly. "Thanks captain. I best go, Zenobia ain't the patient blade around." He chuckled to himself, walking around him but accidently walked into portly man wearing fancy clothes, causing Ash to stumble back a little

"Look where you going soldier! What if I fell and ruined my outfit in the mud?! This outfit is worth more than two months of your salary!" Dugall shouted chastising Ash, making over the top hand gestures to make his point across. He scoffed before focusing on Padraig after getting his shouting fit out. "Captain Padraig! Follow me to the docks, word has reached me that Special Inquisitor Mórag herself will be arriving soon!" his tone surprising shifted, from boisterous and arrogant to panicked with a strange undertone of fear.

" **The Special Inquisitor herself?! She's come all the way from the motherland?! We must go meet her at docks at once and greet her properly!!!** " finishing the sentence, Padraig ran down towards the dock at a speed Ash never thought he could go, Consul Dugall following behind at far more slower pace.

Ash looked towards where they went and his eyes widen exponentially at what he saw. A massive Titan ship just docked and it was far different from any he's seen, damn thing seemed bigger than Torigoth itself. The ones he's seen at the commercial docks, the only Titan ships he's seen before in fact, acted more like blimps. This massive thing was a mismatch of organic and machine, a great deal of steel plating all over and too many guns for him to count. He quite felt bad for the poor titan, he was curious at how it felt becoming a flying fortress.

 _I wonder who's this Mórag person is…_ Ash thought, he/she had to be very important to have a title like 'Special Inquisitor' and to have that huge thing has her personal transport. "I get the feeling something big is gonna happen soon…" he mumbled to himself out loud, seems things were escalating for some reason. He turned around and headed towards town, he shouldn't keep Zenobia waiting too long. She might **actually** make him do push-ups in the town square if he does.

 **-Chapter Ends-**

 **Sorry for the wait guys. It's hard for me to get the will to write sometimes, especially at home after work.**

 **Anyway, I'm not gonna do the Vess idea, too many chapters in Torigoth already. I'll hopefully get to Uraya in the next two chapters. Also, I'm gonna give Ash six blades, you know the classic pokémon six. Also, he'll get a new blade every new titan he visits. So he'll get one in Uraya, another Mor Ardian, etc.**

 **Anyway, keep up the comments and suggestions**!


	5. The Breakout

**Xenoblade Chronicles belongs to Monolith Studios and Pokémon belongs to Gamefreak. I own and profit nothing from this!**

 **-Chapter Starts** -

Ash ran down the path towards Torigoth for a good five minutes, waving has he passed farmers tilling their field, before arriving at the fountain in the middle of town. He took a moment to catch his breath, the exhaustion from his earlier exercise hitting him back hard, before turning his head side to side looking for his partner. Shouldn't be too hard to find her, she didn't exactly blend into a crowd.

It only took a minute for him to find his blade and, unsurprisingly, she was at the core chip shop. She was always wanting to find some ways to get stronger, especially since training didn't yield much gains, or any at all. He'd actually buy her one, well if he actually had any money he would. Though he only got paid bi-weekly sadly, he's seen so many tasty foods but couldn't buy anything. It was quite tortuous for him honestly.

He silently walked up her and looked around her arm, he was too short to look over her shoulder, not helped by the fact she constantly floated nearly a half a foot off the ground. In her hands were two microchips looking items in her hand, such a bizarre item to himself. All you had to do was place the little thing on your blade's weapon and instantly it will change shape, and that was just the cosmetics change the chips offered.

"You gonna just stand behind me like a thief? I ain't very fond of those sneaky rodents, or anything sneaky," Zenobia spoke up, handing the two chips back to the shopkeeper, who mumbled something about 'window shoppers'. She turned around to look at her driver, a relaxed grin on her face as she stared at him. "So how was your business meeting? Did you get the big deal?" she joked, crossing her arms, maybe he got some gold from the captian, she really wanted to upgrade her weapon.

Ash snorted at her joke, he didn't have the brains to be a businessman. Kinda ironic given he was a surprisingly good tactician, in pokémon battles anyway. "Yeah it's over. Ended kinda abruptly though. A massive ship just docked at the base and somebody called Mòrag arrived. The person seemed important, the captain ran off with the Consul like they might lose their heads if they didn't greet properly." He explained what happened while she left him alone, quite odd indeed.

"Mòrag? Never heard of them, probably just some big wig from Mor Ardian anyway. Pay it no mind," Zenobia told him shaking her head, whatever business those puffy clothes wearing aristocrats had she wanted nothing to do with it. Too much talking, not enough punching things. "By the way… Padraig wanted to give you a reward right? So you gonna show it to me or am i gonna have to search you for it?" she asked curiously, taking a seating position, the wind holding her up in place.

Ash nodded his head, he almost forgot he had the core crystal when the giant flying fortress docked. He grabbed the core crystal in his pocket and pulled it out, revealing it to his partner. "He gave me another core crystal, neat huh?" he asked her quickly pocketing it, he didn't need to deal with the pain of an awakening again.

Zenobia stared at the crystal until he put it away, her face a mix of neutrality and displeasure. "Yeah neat… you gonna sell It?" she asked off handily, she didn't want the thing with him. A driver could have multiple blades but she wasn't exactly keen on the idea, she was more than enough for him. It would probably just be a common one anyway.

Ash had a look of shock on his face at her suggestion, like she just said something terrible. "No way! It's a living thinking being, well it's gonna become one! It ain't right!" He told her getting slightly angry glaring at her, that would be a terrible thing to do. Sure, he occasionally traded pokémon but always made sure the person getting them took the best of care of them. He'd never trade, and would never sell, them to just anyone, no matter the offer!

Zenobia turned her head to look at him, honestly surprised he got angry, the teen never once seemed to truly get angry at her. The look of conviction on his face both pleased her and annoyed her, he was going against her but also standing his ground against her despite knowing what she can do. "Well… your my driver I suppose. Do what you want with the thing," she conceded, though she wasn't fond of the idea of sharing a driver with a another blade. But extra protection for him would be good… she'd just prefer a another kind of protection.

Ash's glare softened and turned into a more apologetic look, maybe he overreacted to her. "Sorry for snapping… just a sensitive issue," he told her scratching the back of his neck, he had to deal with people trying to capture his pokémon and sell them. Thankfully his usuals were pretty incompetent, he'd hate to deal with someone like hunter J regularly.

"Nah it's fine. You got your convictions and you stand by them," Zenobia said with a grin, returning to her usual standing position. She respected that about him, he was bullheaded and steadfast when defending himself, her, and his beliefs. "Just don't shout at me, it ain't wise to piss off the woman who can break one of your limbs like a twig," she threaten playfully, she didn't want him getting into the habit of doing it.

"Yeah, yeah. I already said I was sorry…" he mumbled softly to himself turning his head, the last thing he needed was her grilling him at the moment. He noticed something though while his head was turn, a strange sight. A group consisting of a Nopon, a pretty big one too compared to the few he's seen, a female wearing a poncho and a brown haired teen near the aux crystal shop. The teen kinda looked familiar…

 _Nah must be imagining things._ Ash scoffed at the thought, no way would they be roaming around in the open like this. You'd have to insanely bold to try something like that with an entire army around looking for you. "Wanna leave the town and do some hunting? I think we can do a quick one before having to return," he asked his blade grinning, he knew hunting for strong opponents was her favourite and he wanted to explore the Titan more. Win-win.

A grin split on Zenobia's face, oh he did know what she liked. "Definitely, I saw this large bunnit just outside of town. Might be a decent warm up and an even better meal," she licked her lips at the thought, a bunnit, even a special one like that one, wasn't much of a challenge but they were tasty buggers.

Ash's grin grew by her words, food always did get him excited. "Sounds like a plan!" he shouted eagerly before bolting towards Torigoth's southern exit, not looking back to see if his blade was following. He knew how fast she was, she could easily beat him there if she tried.

 **-Tomorrow Morning-**

" **What?!?!** " Ash yelled out angrily slamming his hand on the table while getting up from his seat, his voice echoing across the mess hall during the morning. Everyone inside turned to look at him, surprised by the outburst from the usually energetic yet laid back teen. They turned their heads ignoring the outburst.

Greum raised his hands trying to keep his friend calm, he wasn't suspecting such a reaction. "That Nia girl is gonna get executed tomorrow morning, orders from Special Inquisitor Mòrag's herself," he repeated himself, though it seemed strange to him. Sure she was terrorist but she had a tiny bounty on her, execution seemed like a strange escalation.

Ash gritted his teeth as Zenobia sat beside him, legs crossed eating a steak but eyed her driver from the corner of her eyes. He took his seat and started picking at his food, his usual hunger subdued. "That big ship Mòrag came in sure is something…" he said trying to change the subject, he needed to think on what to do about this execution.

Greum snorted at the comment, that was an understatement. "Sure is. Thing is pretty much a flying fort, with all the amenities that come with that. Mess hall, sleeping quarters for over a thousand, a brig, etc. It's probably better to live in there than our own base," he told him grabbing a piece of cheese and taking a bite out of it.

 _A brig? That's a ships prison isn't It?_ Ash thought remembering the word, it's been quite awhile since he's heard that word. _Are they keeping her in there?_ It would be a lot more secure than the town prison, a lot more troops and probably great defenses. " _Their holding Nia on the ship?_ " he whispered the question, not wanting to draw attention to himself… more than he's already has.

Greum raised an eyebrow at his question before his lips split into a grin. "Oh I get it, you work quick don't you? Might give me some tips?" He said grinning, he got some serious moves, from fighting with each other to being lovers in a day. "Gonna try to steal another kiss before they execute her?" He asked smiling.

Ash looked at him flabbergasted at his words, this guy's head was far into the clouds! He was about to venomously disagree with him, he had no interest in Nia in a romantic sense, but stopped himself. "Yeah… so do you know?" he told him with a strained smile, it's better to work with his train of thought than work against it. If he argued against it, he might start questioning his motives for wanting to know.

Greum nodded his head smugly crossing his arms, nobody could hide their secrets from him! "Sure mate, anything for young love," he said passionately, though he made sure not to shout like his companion. "They moved her there this morning. The brig is on the upper levels but that's all I know," he's talked with several people who manned the ship so he had a little knowledge on the ship.

Ash nodded his head before getting up abruptly, catching the attention of Zenobia, and getting out of his seat. "Thanks Greum. See ya around," he said with a faint smile before walking towards the exit, ignoring his full plate of eggs and sausage.

Greum and Zenobia looked shocked that he left without eating at least one serving of food, guy always ate three to four plates in a single sitting. "Yeah see ya…" Greum said waving slightly, confused at what just happened and the change in demeanor of his friend. He turned to Zenobia and flashed her one of his charming smiles. "Well since we're both alone together... Maybe we should get to know each other better?" he asked her eyebrow raised, slowly sliding his right hand across the table towards Zenobia's left hand.

"Pull it back before I pull your arm out of it's socket," Zenobia said casually sipping on her cup of water, you'd think after the first few threats he'd take the hint. "Also 'we' won't be alone, 'you'll' be alone. See ya," she finished with her water before getting off her seat. "Clean up for us alright? If you do I might actually let you hold my hand for little, maybe," she said with a grin knowing he'll do it, guy seriously needed to think of things other than girls. She floated after her partner, not bothering to wait for a reply.

 ** _They can't execute her like that! What's this Mórag person thinking by doing this?!_** Ash though angrily, his footsteps echoing down the empty hall. He couldn't understand the logic of just killing her, wouldn't they want her alive to learn about those Torna guys? Something was up but for the love of him he couldn't figure it out.

"So what's your plan on breaking her out?" a voice asked startling him, was it obvious what he was going to do and somebody figured it out. Ash turned his head with a nervous smile but calmed down instantly, it was only Zenobia thankfully.

"Not gonna try and talk me out of It?" Ash asked her curiously, entering his room, well one he shared with nineteen others, and noticing no one around. Good. They must still be at breakfast. They shouldn't come back here until at least lunch. that gave him plenty of time to think on the best move to save Nia.

"Why would I?" Zenobia asked him, seeing him take a seat on the bottom bunk of a bunk bed. "Blades support their driver in whatever they want. Even if i didn't want to, I'd have to help you," she told him floating towards him, taking a seat beside him. "But I do want to. I hate this place, we ain't gonna find worthy enemies sitting on our asses here. If you help her, you'll have to leave the army. That's a win for me," she grinned at him giving him a thumbs up, she was completely down with a little treason.

Ash returned her grin with a smile, having her support was a relieve. "Thanks… but just the two of us seems like suicide to take on that ship," he thought out loud placing his chin in his hand while his elbow rested on his knee. He had the advantage of stealth, he could probably just walk in fine and get to her, but breaking her out is the tricky part. He knew nothing about the ship and had no time to learn, he needed a few extra hands.

Zenobia let out a sigh before leaning back and laying on the bed, she hated to admit but he had a point. Their probably a few hundred soldiers on that ship, not including drivers. Even ants could overwhelm a mighty predator in large enough numbers. "So what do you suggest? Ask Greum for help? Maybe go ask the guy you nearly help catch to help us?" she asked sarcastically, as if any of them would.

Ash snorted at her words. Greum was a decent guy but wouldn't help them with this unless he offered Zenobia's… he wasn't even gonna finish that sentence. Getting Rex's help wasn't out of the question, seemed like the guy to put aside differences to help a friend. He just didn't know where he was and didn't really have much time to look, he couldn't rely on him. "No but I plan to look for Rex before we sneak into the ship tonight. But I do have an idea where to get another pair of hands," he told her with a grin, just remembering something that would be helpful.

Zenobia raised her head to look at him, an eyebrow raised in curiosity. "You do? Pray tell who's gonna help us?" she questioned him curiously, she had no idea who he could possibly be talking about..

Ash's grin widen further at her question, moving his right hand to his back pocket. "Well I don't know who's gonna help us…" he said pulling out an object from his back pocket and revealing it to his blade, the core crystal captain Padriag gave him. "But it's better than nothing right?" he asked her, placing the core crystal on the bed before slowly starting to remove his gloves.

Zenobia eyed the crystal before sighing and taking a seated position. She didn't want him awakening another blade but, like he said, they had few options and his survival was her paramount concern. Another blade would help him survive. "So your gonna awaken her right now?" She questioning looking down at the crystal, she was curious what type of blade was gonna pop out of there. Resonating with random core crystals was kinda like gambling, it was pure luck to pull out a rare blade.

Ash nodded throwing his gloves onto the floor, he didn't need to make skin contact with the crystal but thought it helped. "Yeah. We don't got much better things to do right?" He told her, picking up the core crystal in his left hand and placing it on his chest, wear his heart was. It was a supposed stance that helped quicken the resonating process.

At first, like before, he felt nothing at all except some mild heat coming from the crystal. Suddenly, and without his control, he exploded in a visible cloak of aura which began to siphon into the core crystal. The aura caused the crystal to glow even brighter and to emit even more heat, enough to cause Ash significant discomfort. Despite that, he held onto it tightly.

Zenobia looked at the sight stunned but something was off. She heard something, like a whisper on the wind calling her and warmth invading her body, and oddly, she remembered this voice and this feeling. Before she formed into her current form, she heard this calling. It was the only thing she could remember before meeting Ash, that calling and the warmth it brought. _What are you Ash?_ She thought staring at him, stretching her hand towards him oblivious to her action.

 **-Elsewhere-**

"Rex-Rex is amazing! Salvaged all parts for artificial blade! We only need to kill ugly monster to get last part!" Tora shouted in excitement waving his ear arms, his dream to becoming a driver is coming true! All thanks to his new driver friend Rex-Rex and Pyra, these have been best days of Tora.

Rex scratched his nose with his finger taking in the praise, it wasn't often got such high praise. "No problem! But you sure you'll get this blade up and running in time? We only got tonight to break Nia out and we don't have much of a plan yet." he asked crossing his arms, concern for Nia growing by the hour.

Tora smiled happily at his friend nodding, reassuring his friend. "Rex-Rex worry much. Artificial blade will be ready, just need part and little, tiny bit of lighting. Be finished tonight," he reassured before walking away, he needed to install the new parts into Poppi before they head off to slay monster.

Rex sighed uncrossing his arms, he really hope this 'artificial blade' will be worth the trouble. "What do you think Pyra? About this whole artificial blade stuff?" He asked his blade turning his head to look at her. However, she was looking at a wall and seemed a little lost. "Hey Pyra? You alright?" he questioned concern, it wasn't like her to just state into a wall.

His words knocked her out of her trance like state. "Yes I am. Sorry, just got lost in my thoughts. Didn't mean to worry you," the red haired girl reassured him, but her thoughts were focus elsewhere. _What was that just now? It was like a voice calling out to me…_ she never experienced such a thing before, it wasn't unpleasant though.

 _I don't know either but I think it has something to do with our raven haired friend._ A feminine voice told her inside her mind, also curious about the phenomenon that just occured. _He produces odd energy and I detected a thin wave of energy that passed by us just now. The two energy signals matchup but that's all I know… felt nice though._ The voice mused, she honestly liked the feeling and voice was quite soothing. Reminded her of her first driver…

 _Thanks for the info Mythra. Keep me posted._ Pyra thought to her other self before cutting the connection between them. The feeling passed and she needed to focus on her current task.

 **-Military Base-**

Brighid was speaking with her driver Mórag before turning her head to look in completely different direction. _What was that? That voice sounds familiar…_ she thought remembering hearing that voice three days ago, the feeling was exactly the same as well.

"Brighid is something wrong?" Mórag asked her blade, seated in the chair meant for the head of the Mor Ardian Gormott division.

"Its nothing… I thought I heard something is all," she wasn't exactly lying but telling her driver she was hearing voices was unwise, didn't need her thinking something was wrong. The feeling pass and so to the voice, it was nothing. "So do you agree with my investigation?" she asked her driver, returning to their original topic.

Mórag hummed in thought while rubbing her chin with a gloved hand, her other hand grabbing a folder on the table she was sitting at. "I must admit, this is quite the peculiar situation and somewhat hard to believe. Are you sure these reports are reliable?" she asked unsure opening the file once more, she trusted her blade without a doubt but what she was reading was questionable at best.

Brighid nodded walking towards the table before taking a seat on it, keeping eye contact with her driver. "His resonation with a blade was witness by dozens of people, including five soldiers which included captain Padraig himself. The battle reports also came from him and he witnessed the events. Plus you can see his extremely high physical scoring, overseen by several soldiers," she explained, grabbing the folder out of her hands gently and revealing each relevant paper to her point.

Mórag reread the papers and leaned back in her chair, despite how bizarre these reports are, the witnesses were reliable. "So what do you advice we do? You seem interested in this driver," she noted tapping her fingers together, she had to admit she was interested herself. These feats weren't impossible, except the bizarre resonation, but highly unlikely espiaclly from a raw recruit.

"We watch him…" she said simply, it was best to observe for the moment.

 **-Back at the Barrack -**

Ash, ignorant of the affect his resonating has caused, tightened his grip on the crystal. Finally, the heat suddenly disappeared and the light faded, allowing the two to finally open their eyes.

Ash's eyes widen seeing the weapon, or weapons in this case two weapons, floating in front of him. The weapons looked like a pair of boxing gloves, if the gloves were made of metal and looked futuristic.

He slid his hands into the openings on both weapons, grasping two rod like objects inside, noting it was completely open at the bottom. These things obviously didn't work like traditional boxing gloves he's seen. The floating effect ended and Ash turned his arms so he can see the front of the weapons. They weren't has luxurious and ornate looking as Zenobia's weapon but had an interesting aesthetic of their own.

It was as if Ash was looking at the heads of two robotic animals. The boxing gloves were segmented, looking like the upper and lower jaws of a canine. The upper half had red visor, almost looking like eyes, and strange blue symbol that looked like a 'O' with a spike on the bottom just above the visors. There was two protrusions near the back, looking like ears from his perspective.

The lower half had two energy blades, like Zenobia's axe. However, they were shaped like the claws of cats, it seemed he could both punch normally to stab his enemies or swipe like a cat to slash at them. Something he'd have to adapt to. It also had a another blade of energy coming out the other end, kinda acting like protection for his wrists and slightly above them, obviously just for protection and not for attacking.

Ash, finishing his inspection of his new weapons, heard the sound of someone yawning and the squeaking sound of animals. He moved his hands to clear his sight and looked down at the floor, where he believed he heard the sound coming from.

Lying in front of him was a person, stretching her body out like a cat or dog just waking up. Ash noticed she had a strange object on her back, kinda look like a backpack made out of molten lava. Protruding out of the pack's top, near her shoulders, were two serpent like creatures with blue scales and each sport a mane of hair, coloured blue and red for each. Coming out of the bottom of the pack, was a long blue tail with colourful feathers protruding from the sides

The creature, after stretching her body, finally stood to her full height and smiled happily at Ash. "Hi there! I'm Nim!" she introduced herself, happily waving her two large white fur covered hands, a strange cross between human hands and the paws of animals. The two serpent creatures, which had fox-like faces, nipped at her teal fox ears. "Ouch! Why did you do that?!" she whined out grabbing her ears, they weren't bleeding but it still hurt!

Ash chuckled softly enjoying the antics of the blade while Zenobia merely snorted, not at all impressed by the blade. With her now standing upright, he could see her details better.

Her legs below the knee were made of cooled lava, surprisingly he didn't feel any heat despite how close she was. She was covered in white fur, focused around her arms, chest, waist, and around her neck. The rest of her body was covered by thin tan fur, almost looking like skin if he wasn't so close to her. Her more… private parts… were covered by longer white fur, he wasn't sure if it was removable and he didn't want to find out. Her face was the most human thing about her, with only her lighter tan face fur and her fox-like nose ruining the human.visage. Her hair and eyebrows was a matching teal colour with her hair tied into a bun and held in place by a hairpin.

The tiny creatures whined at her about something and she nodded her head at their sounds, did she understand them? "Oh! Sorry… these are my friends, Kit and Sunny! Their also happy to meet you," she introduced her friend, looking at the blue manned serpent when introducing 'Kit' and looked at the other when saying 'Sunny'. "We'll try our best for you!" she said determinedly smiling at him, lowering her hands and clenching them. She seemed eager to please him.

Ash returned her smile with his own, enjoying her more enthusiastic and warm personality. "It's nice to meet you three! I'm Ash and this is Zenobia, my first blade!" he introduced themselves, trying to make a first good impression.

Nim turned her head to make eye contact with Zenobia, who gotten off the bed to look down at her. "It's nice to meet you! I hope we can work together to keep our driver safe!" she said her smile never leaving her face, she was slightly disappointed that she wasn't her driver's first but was also happy to have another friend.

Zenobia remained silent, just staring down Nim, causing the fox blade to fidget under her stare. "Yeah. I'm trusting you, don't mess it up," she warned her slightly, returning the smile with a grin. She wanted to say more, more of a threat reinforcing how she's the top blade of her driver, but didn't knowing Ash wouldn't take kindly to that.

Nim's smile grew not knowing the actual opinion of her fellow blade. But before they can continue their conversation, Ash coughed into his palm garnering the attention of the two blades. "It's good that your getting along," he commented grinning turning to look at Zenobia, glad that she wasn't being hostile to the newcomer despite how she was against him resonating with another blade. "But I need your help Nim with something really important. I really hope you can help," he told his new blade, taking a more serious note, now the time to talk business.

Nim tilted her head slightly in confusion, reminding Ash of how cutely pokémon did it. "I'll try my best. What did you need help with?" she asked her ears twitching slightly, she seemed to be listening intently to his request.

Ash smiled relieved she was willing to work with them, he knew technically he could force her to work with him but that wouldn't settle well with him. "Thanks. So here's the plan…" the two blades leaned forward as the trainer whispered his plan, well kinda plan.

 **-Later That Night-**

Ash was laying in bed, pretending to sleep as his fellow bunk mates filed in and falling asleep.

Ash spent the rest of the day before this point mostly doing what he usually did, he couldn't act suspicious, he already got several looks when he walked around with another blade. However, during his free time, he went in search of Rex around Torigoth but unfortunately left empty handed. Well except a fish when Nim just grabbed one from a vendor and started eating it, getting the trio in trouble. The fox blade didn't understand the concept of paying for goods, well to be fair neither did Zenobia at first.

" _You guys awake?_ " Ash whispered out loud opening one eye, looking around the room making sure everyone else is not awake.

Zenobia unwrapped herself from her ball state, Ash still didn't understand why she slept by curling herself into a ball and simply floated in place, and cracked her neck. " _Yeah… not sure about your new pet though,_ " she whispered back pointing to the floor.

Ash looked over the rim of his bed and sighed, he should've known

Nim was sleeping soundly on the floor right next to his bed, Kit and Sunny snoozing inside their shell on her back, only their snouts sticking out of it. She really liked taking naps.

Ash sighed as he slowly got out of bed, his feet narrowly missing stepping on Nim's head. He bend down until his face was very close to her ear, there's one sure fire way to get her to awaken. " _I got a big fried fish here but nobody to eat it… best throw it out._ " He whispered into her ear, placing his hand over her mouth to stop the outburst to come.

At the word of fish, Nim's eyes shot wide open and attempted to yell something out, luckily muffled by Ash's hand. After her outburst, she looked around noticing her driver and new blade friend staring down at her. She looked at them confused for a second before realization hit her, they planned to save Ash's other friend tonight!

Ash removed his hand from her mouth, getting a nod from her. He grabbed a backpack from under his bed, containing his old clothes and a large number of preserved food, and strapping it on his back before standing back up with Nim following suit. He nodded his head towards the door out of the barrack, time for them to move out.

The trio slowly made their way towards the door, trying their best to not arouse the sleeping blades sprawled across the floor, not enough bunks for both drivers and blades. After enough creeping, they made it to the door and opened, a breeze of fresh air hitting them. The three walked out of the door before Ash quietly closed the door behind them.

"Alright, now's the hard part…" Ash said out loud, confident that the metal door will muffle their voices from the occupants inside. He turned away from the door to look at the massive battleship they were soon to enter, almost literally entering the belly of the beast.

"Do we really have to go inside that… thing?" Nim asked him pointing towards the massive Titan ship, her body noticeably stiffening at seeing the combination of biology and technology. "It's just so unnatural and wrong…" she spoke terrified of the thing, poor girl was terrified of technology and especially when it's merged with a natural creature like a Titan.

"If you wanna help your driver you will," Zenobia said crossing her arms staring at her, obviously displeased by her fright at the mere sight of the thing. "You could stay behind of course. I'm sure Ash wouldn't hold it against you if your too scared," she reassured mockingly, trying to get under the skin of her kinda competition.

Nim pouted slightly at her comment, she maybe scared of the thing, really scared, but she wasn't going to let her driver down! "Of course not! It's not gonna bite so nothing to fear… right?" she started confident, but the thought of this abomination actually eating her caused her to get slightly scared. Only slightly.

"Of course it won't Nim. It just a ship, it won't come and eat us. Promise," Ash reassured her grabbing her hand, paw, thing to calm the fox blade a little, offering her a smile. Admittedly, he was kinda scared of going in there himself, except he was worried about the hundred of soldiers running around with guns, not the ship itself.

Nim looked down at him holding her hand and smiled, feeling more confident about the situation. She closed her hand around his, quite comical as her hand completely enveloped his due to how large her's were. "Your right! Let's rescue your friend and get out! The faster, the better!" she said with renewed confidence, she just hoped they got out of there quickly. For the sake of her driver's friend sake, not her own. Obviously..

"Exactly! Before we go… can you let go?" Ash asked her trying to pry his hand from her surprisingly strong grip, not has strong as Zenobia but still enough to stop him from freeing it.

"Oops! Sorry!" Nim exclaimed, she didn't even notice that her grip was tightening. She let go of his before embarrassingly scratching her arm, Zenobia watching the scene with disdain.

Shaking his hand to get the blood flow going again, he simply nodded at her apology and headed towards the ship, making sure to drop his backpack in between some crates to hide it. For his, sorta, plan to work, he needed to not look suspicious has much as possible.

As he headed towards the entrance, his two blades following behind him, he breathed in and out to calm himself while adjusting his uniform. If they stopped him to check who he was, this rescue operation was sunk.

Surprisingly, he saw nobody guarding the entrance to the ship and only saw a few soldiers roaming around inside. _No guards? Weird_. Maybe they were just confident nobody would try anything, works for him either way. He entered the ship, nodding and waving in greeting to others as not to.raise suspicion.

The trio roamed the bottom floor for a good twenty minutes until he finally found a set of stairs, near the ships engine room weirdly. His poor sense of direction probably striking again. The three of them walked past many engineers, Ash looked amazed at all the technology and was curious how it worked. "I wonder how all this stuff works with the Titan?" he asked out loud looking over the railing, the closest thing he's seen like this was genesect and he wasn't exactly inside it to know how the machinery was connected with the organic material

Nim simply shook her head, she didn't need the mental image of this beautiful creature getting gutted to fit all this technology. "Does it matter? It ain't right to do this, it ain't natural…" she said looking at the ground kicking the metal steps, these Ardianians had no respect for the natural state of nature. It was a real shame.

Zenobia snorted at how childish she was acting, just because she didn't like something didn't make it right or wrong. "She's right, it doesn't matter. We aren't here to become engineers, we don't need to know that kinda stuff," she told them turning around and heading up the stairs, they had something to do and they shouldn't get distracted.

Ash sighed seeing Zenobia start to leave, you'd think someone who can't remember anything about the world would be very curious about everything. He was always wanting to learn everything, he might not know how they actually worked but still. "You heard her Nim, let's go," he told the fox blade while following behind Zenobia, she had a fair point. They had a job to do.

Nim merely nodded before following her driver, her lava legs causing a loud thud for each step on the metal flooring.

The group made it to the upper levels finally but this meant they'd have to wander around even more. Ash never recieved a detailed layout of the ship and simply asking random soldiers 'where the brig is' would seem super suspicious. Speaking of soldiers… _their doesn't seem to be so many_ _around._ He thought scratching his chin, walking past what he believed was a sleeping quarters for soldiers, one of many he passed.

Ash honestly expected to find a lot more armed guards roaming around, given the supposed capacity of the ship. Maybe they only a brought a skeleton crew explaining the amount of soldiers. _Still… seems things are too easy._ He should feel grateful but something feels off, could just be the paranoia though. He's been a lot more cautious since he decided to free Nia.

Luckily for him, he finally got a good idea where the brig was. "Warden office? That's the guy who runs the prison right?" he asked turning his head to look at his companions. They stood in a relatively small hallway, at the end of it was a set of stairs and they stood in front of the only door in the hallway.

Nim shook her head in the negative, she was only recently resonated so her knowledge was limited.

Zenobia simply walked around the corner and looked inside a window they walked past. After ten seconds, she returned to stand besude him before saying, "There's a guy with one of those ridiculous helmets and a guard dog. Didn't see any keys in there though," she crossed her arms slightly annoyed.

Ash cross his arms in thought, well the brig was probably near, probably up the stairs, but without the keys how could they free Nia? He snapped his finger with a grin, catching the attention of his blades. They didn't need a key at all. He turned to look at Zenobia, his grin growing, before saying, "Think you can rip open a locked door?" he asked her knowing her most likely answer to his inquiry.

Zenobia mimicked his grin, enjoying his line of thought. "Of course. So long has the handle holds, that lock won't last ten seconds," she boasted thumping her chest with a hand, her boast was surprisingly quiet despite her loud nature. Probably realizing shouting something in front of the warden's office was unwise.

Nim looked in wonder at Zenobia. "Your really that strong? That's amazing," she said in wonder, eyes wide has she feed Zenobia's already large ego. Nim didn't share Zenobia's amazing physical gifts, but she supposedly could talk with animals, if her conversations with Kit and Sunny are anything to go by.

Before Zenobia could boast further, Ash walked between them hand raised. "Yes she is, can we get on with the task at hand?" He asked, trying to return focus to the group. They've wasted precious time already roaming around, they needed to hurry things up.

Zenobia simply snorted at being interrupted but cracked her knuckles eagerly, it was soon time to shine. No more of this sneaking crap, after they rescue her such a disdainful approach won't be viable. "Lead the way fearless leader," she said looking towards the metal stairs.

Ash simply nodded before heading towards the stairs, his blades following behind him closely. He slowly walked up the stairs but suddenly turned his head hearing a loud bang. It was Nim stepping on the metal floor; an apologetic look on her face at the noise.

He simply sighed before continuing on, flinching each time he heard the loud banging of Nim's feet hitting metal. After a grueling twenty second walk up the stairs, he raised his hand to stop the party at the final step. He put his finger on his lips for them to be silent, he heard voices ahead. He slowly peered around the corner to look at the people talking.

"Guarding one prisoner? Are we really needed here with the warden literally just down the steps?" one soldier complained holstering his weapon, oblivious to Ash listening in on the conversation.

"Doesn't matter. Orders are orders, we do them and that's it. Stop complaining, our shift is gonna end in a hour. Try to talk about something nice like… hitting the pub later," the other one fired back, obviously annoyed at his companions complaints.

Ash turned his head away from the duo, he doubted he'd learn anything from their conversation anyway. " _two guards ahead. I think we can take them no problem,"_ he whispered, confident one good blow should take out the guards. Now he only needed to choose which blade to use.

" _Nim, keep on lookout down the steps. Zenobia, give me your axe,_ " he whispered to the blades the plan, holding out both hands for the aforementioned axe. Despite being more familiar with hand-to-hand combat, Ash had little experience with Nim to develop arts and had no range arts made. He needed to rely on Zenobia for now until he can become more familiar with his other blade.

Zenobia grinned wildly, grabbing the axe off her back and placing it in his waiting hands. She was obviously glad to have some action after doing nothing but roaming around aimlessly for hours, she wasn't a patient woman after all.

Nim simply smiled and gave a salute before focusing her attention down the steps. If anyone came up them, they'll know.

With everything ready, Ash grasped the axe nodding, it's the point of no return now. Ash rushed around the corner, axe raised diagonally with air wrapping around the axe head like a typhon.

" **What the hell?!?!** " one of the soldiers shouted, dropping his weapon on the floor at the shock of the situation. His partner had more wherewithal than his partner and fire off a shot, barrel smoking.

Unlucky for the two, the shot went wild and hit the head of Ash's weapons, accomplishing nothing. He swung his arm yelling, " **Air Crush!!!** " before swinging the weapon down, creating a powerful gust of wind to be fired forward towards the guards.

The wave wind slammed into the duo, their chest armor crushed inwards due to the force. The two were sent flying into the wall and slammed against with a loud 'thud'. The two were pinned to the wall for a few seconds by the wind before it died down, and the two men collapsed onto the floor not moving.

Ash sighed sheaving the axe away, the two guards weren't dead but will probably suffer terrible headaches when they woke up. He quickly ran up to the door Zenobia following suit. "Get the door open!" he ordered to her, looked towards the way they entered, Nim hasn't spoken up just yet but time wasn't their ally right now.

"Yeah, yeah. Stand back and let me get this baby open," Zenobia told him, pushing him aside while cracking her knuckles. She grabbed the handle with one hand and started to pull back with all her might. The action caused the door to creak at the pressure but didn't seem like it was gonna budge. The ferocious woman undeterred, grabbed the handle with both hands and pulled once more. The bolts on the handle started to come loose and shoot out, it seemed like the handle was gonna come flying off instead.

Luckily, the lock broke first and the door was flung wide open, shrapnel from the broken lock flying across the floor. " **What the bloody hell is this?!?!** " a familiar female voice shouted from inside the room yelled, surprised.

Ash ran inside, ignoring the satisfied grin of Zenobia, and saw Nia sitting on the floor with her legs in front of her, a look shock and surprise in her face. "Nia! It's great to see your alright! Let's get you outta here!" he told her in.a rush, offering her a hand to help her get back on her feet.

Nia looked at the offered gloved hand but turned her head away. "You idiot… you know your a traitor now right? They'll kill you for helping me! **Why'd you pull such a stupid stunt to save a person you barely know?!** " she shouted at him, berating him for what she thought was a stupid act. She didn't want somebody else killed because of her…

"Because you don't deserve this!" Ash shouted back with a serious glint in his eyes, he knew very well what he's gotten into when he did this. "I told you that you didn't deserve to be in a cell, your a good person who saved lives! And I'm gonna save yours no matter what! I've made my bed, so are you gonna just lay there or come with me!" he begged her, hand stretched out waiting for her response.

Nia turned her head and looked at his hand once more before looking into light brown eyes, he genuinely wanted to help her. "Your a bloody idiot… but you got a good heart in yah," she said, grasping his hand firmly with her right. "But I'm not leaving here without Dromarch, got it?" she told him seriously, she wasn't going to reward his loyalty with abandonment.

Ash grasped her hand tightly and helped pull her onto her feet, a giant smile on his face. "Of course! I didn't plan on leaving anyone behind. Let's grab your friend and leave this place for good!" he told her with excitement, it couldn't be too hard to find the blade in this massive ship.

Nia stared at his face and she smiled slightly, a hint of pink on her cheeks. "I'll hold you onto that…" she said quietly letting go of his hand, looking away from him. He kinda reminded her of Rex, just slightly better looking…

 **-Chapter Ends-**

 **That's it. So Nim is Ash is new blade, leaving four slots available. Expect the next chapter to be longer, quite a bit of action in that one I promise.**

 **So why Nim? Well she represents Ash's desire to do good but sometimes just making it worse and his sometimes more laid back attitude on life. Also, I like to think Ash is more a outdoors type of guy than city person. Also, I originally planned to make her his first but swapped it out for Zenobia. Also, i altered her appearance slightly, she's technically not a woman due to her female parts are replaced with the lava like her legs below the knee. Now it's just covered by fur, it's a minor detail.**

 **Also, I plan in the future to make a series of one shots which will feature Ash in different pairings with characters in xenoblade 2 and some other hijinks. Consider them his heart to hearts, little side stories roughly only two thousand words long.**

 **Well that's it. Bye guys!**


	6. Brawl on the titan ship

**I'M BACK! Sorry for the wait guys but here's a new chapter for you. Glad that you guys are so patient and your positive comments put a grin on this face. Before i start, could one of you great guys and gals tell me how to make a poll on my page. I literally clicked every button on the app and saw nothing about polls.**

 **Xenoblade Chronicles belongs to Monolith Studios and Pokémon belongs to Gamefreak. I own and profit nothing from this!**

 **-Chapter starts-**

 _Well part one is done but now we have a new part added._ Ash thought walking out of the cell, Nia following right behind him. He actually forgot about the white tiger blade, admittedly the polite and well mannered blade didn't leave a big impression on him so there's that.

Ash walked towards the steps and stopped when Nim was in sight, her focus down the steps and her tail shuffling back and forth. "Heard anything Nim?" he asked, hopefully they haven't alerted the beedrill nest to their presence after the ruckus they caused, makes things run smoother.

Nim's ears twitched slightly at his word before turning her head to him, smiling brightly at him. "Nothing yet! I couldn't hear before because you and Zenobia were really noisy but it's quiet right now, that's good right?" she asked optimistically, believing she performed her job well. Noticing Nia walking up behind Ash, she tilted her head slightly. "Your Nia right? The one our driver wanted to rescue?" she asked curiously, her smile not leaving her face.

"Yeah that's me. Thanks for helping out with this." Nia said sounding slightly surprised, she was a rare blade like the other one but he only had just one when she last saw him. Guy must have one hell of a luck to get two rare blades. _Better off gambling than being a soldier._ She thought musing to herself, getting two rare blades was really rare unless you had crates full of core crystal.

"Yeah that's good Nim, great job," Alex complimented with a smile, Nim beaming in delight at the praise she received. "Nia. You got any idea where Dromarch is? Maybe he's in one of the neighbouring cells," he asked turning towards the Gormotti, looking past her to look at the unopened cells adjacent to her's. Zenobia was standing by them cracking her knuckles, obviously ready to rip open more doors.

Nia placed her left hand and shook her head in the negative. "He ain't, I would've felt him nearby plus its standard protocol separating drivers from their blades. It would be stupid to have a driver's weapon right next to them." she said in an annoyed tone, it would've been so much simpler if he actually was right next door. "I heard those blokes…" she used her free hand to point towards the two downed guards. "that their keeping him in the cargo bay, bottom floor," she recalled what little tidbits of info she had, just small talk her guards kept yammering about.

Ash cursed to himself, they were on the bottom floor before, he swore he saw a sign pointing out the cargo hold near the engine room. He just never had reason to go there before now. "I know where the cargo room is, let's just hope we can avoid the patrols. We don't need the entire ship's population crashing down on us," he told her stretching his arms, they had the lay of the land now but if anyone sees Nia… well it's best he keeps a weapon out at all time.

Nia nodded her head in agreement. "Seems has much a plan as any. Sorry about complicating your escape plan," she said offering him sympathetic smile, her desire to rescue her blade probably made his plans complicated. She felt a little bad about it but she'd feel even worse if she abandoned Dromarch, even if he did annoy her on occasion.

"Don't worry it, it's really great that you want him safe. I'm used to things mostly never going to plan," he joked with a cheeky grin, saving Dromarch was an unexpected addition to the plan but Ash honestly expected much worse issues. Nothing ever went exactly has he wanted, that's what makes life exciting.

Nia cracked a slight grin at his words, he was quite the positive sort. "Is that so? Well I really hope your ability of getting out of trouble is better than getting into trouble. If not, it would've been better leaving me in the cell," she joked back nudging his shoulder with her own.

Ash let out a hearty laugh, she seemed to have a sense of humour. "If you've seen the situation I've gotten out of, you'd think I was the luckiest guy alive!" he jested back before walking towards the stairs, honestly this endeavor wouldn't even make into his top ten of bad situations. Maybe top thirty. From saving the world to facing legends, breaking into an army ship was kinda tame in comparison.

Nia snorted at his claim, seeing what he survived since meeting him, his words might have some merit. Hearing a loud thud behind her, she turned her head to see Zenobia toss the unconscious guards unceremoniously into a heap in the middle of her former cell. The wind blade than grabbed the two rifle the guards wielded, snapping them in half like twigs before tossing the guns in with them. "Well the two boneheads shouldn't be waking up for while. Also I found the keys on them," the blade said, tossing a small ring of keys towards her driver who caught them.

Ash brought the keys down to eye level and chuckled nervously, seems breaking the lock wasn't necessary. "Should've searched the guards before pulling out the door huh?" he asked with a lopsided grin, in his rushed state, he neglected the possibility that the guards could have had the key. Well, it didn't really matter at this point, it was done and said.

Nia simply let out exasperated sigh at his antics, was she really gonna trust this guy to breakout her and Dromarch? Well, he did break her out without alerting the army, he couldn't be an entire idiot if he pulled that off. Hopefully. "Can we just get moving already? I'm quite tired being near my cell," she said placing her right hand on her wrist, Zenobia floating up beside her dusting her hands off.

Ash nodded in understanding, the time for talking was over and now it was time to get out. "Yeah let's get out, walk in between us," he told her before walking past Nim and heading down the stairs, the bubbly fox blade following in line behind him, her heavy steps echoing behind him. Maybe they could appear like they were transporting her somewhere, well at least it was worth trying.

Nia simply stared at his back before sighing but fell in line anyway, Zenobia following up behind their now quartet. She had no real choice but to follow his lead, he probably knew his way around so he was really is her only chance to find Dromarch and get out.

The group made it to the bottom of the steps and began to retrace Ash's route to the lower levels, not going into the several dead ends and barracks. Despite knowing where to go, the roaming patrols of guard all over the place made the process annoyingly slow. When he meet his first patrol, he tried to use his excuse that he was moving her to get past them. That ended with four soldiers knocked out on the floor with an exasperated Ash, complaining at how his plan, more idea than plan, failing so easily.

Since that failure, and tossing all the unconscious soldiers into a janitor's closet, Zenobia had to really pack them in so they could fit, the group has been avoiding patrol as best they could. There wasn't enough closests to store all the bodies, that didn't sound right at all to Ash. They were forced to take side hallways to avoid patrols, only to run into another causing them to take another alternate route. It frustrated the group to no end, especially Zenobia who's not famed for her patience.

This turned at best a ten minute walk into a gruelling thirty minute trek around the upper levels. Eventually though, the group did make it to the stairway Ash and his blades took to get to the upper levels "Alright… we're here. Finally," the teen said, cleaning off some sweat from his forehead, how long as he been running around this ship? A few hours by this point.

"Finally! Honestly I'd rather take on this entire ship than sneak around for another minute!" Zenobia shouted in frustration, her growing annoyance for their current predicament was palpable, Ash was surprised that she hasn't broken something yet. Still, he had to agree that things have been dreadfully slow since the beginning, he thought this entire thing would have been over in no more than half an hour. It's closing in on its second hour.

"You shouldn't really complain…" Nim said, her tone was obviously one of complaint has she lifted one foot and rubbed it. "You float everywhere… my feet are sore from all this walking on solid metal. Can we take a break?" she asked Ash with a pleading look, her eyes wide as she gave her best 'puppy' dog face to convince him that small break was needed.

Zenobia simply snorted at the complaint of her ally. "oh your feet hurt?' she asks sarcastically, her stare lowering to look at the 'feet' of her fellow blade. "I didn't know rocks could get sore. Ash better go apologize to the stone paths you walk on. They must be so sore from you walking on them," she said with a smirk, teasing her fellow blade, though she did have point.

Nim puffed out her cheeks in protest at the teasing. "it's not the same thing! Yeah they look like stone but they aren't, their apart of me like my paws. If they were the same thing shouldn't be really hot due to all the lava?" she fired back pointing to the red veins on her feet, despite looking like lava, none could feel heat radiating from them.

Before Zenobia could fire back, Ash simply walked down the steps ignoring them, catching the two off guard. This surprised the two, he usually acted as the mediator between the two. "Nim please just bear with it for awhile, Zenobia leave her alone for now. We can't be bickering here between ourselves, not now at least," he told them simply, turning his head so he can look at them. Without saying another word, he made his ways down the steps.

Nim looked at Zenobia before quickly following behind him, her footsteps echoing inside the stairwell. The wind blade simply snorted and floated behind them, not happy about being shut down but followed suit anyway. It didn't seem he was going to entertain their bickering for the moment.

Nia was slightly impressed, he took control of the situation instantly with only a few sentences. He seemed to have some ability as a leader. _Guess I ain't too bad of hands._ She thought grinning, taking up the rear of the group now, her confidence in her surprising new ally growing.

Reaching the bottom of the steps, Ash walked towards the end of the hallway but stopped, raising his hand to stop the rest. "Do you hear that?" he asked, ears perking as he tried to listen in on something, everyone else following suit to see if he actually did here something.

Nim and her kitsune friends ears perked up before tilting slightly to the left. "I hear footsteps… several people running… towards us!" she nearly shouted, the stampede of footsteps were getting louder, loud enough to the point where everyone else could make out the details.

Ash had a look of shock, was it a detachment of soldiers coming to get them? But how would they know? No alarm went off so nobody should have known. " _Zenobia give me your axe!_ " he hissed out pressing himself against the wall, his body tensed.

Zenobia simply nodded, handing the her axe towards him but Nim got in between the exchange. " _How about use my weapon? You haven't used it too much and I like to fight too, not has much as Zenobia but still. I might be a healing blade doesn't mean I want to be on the sidelines!_ " she complained to her driver, not being used by him since practice kinda upset her, she hasn't really much helped at all and she desperately wanted to.

Before Zenobia could tell her off, Ash spoke up. " _I see no reason why not. I'm sorry that I've been neglecting you like that,_ " he said cutting her off once more, they didn't need argument breaking out. Unlike earlier, he didn't need a ranged attack, this will be an ambush.

Nim smiled happily and clapped her large hands together, the sound quite muffled due to how fluffy they are. Zenobia looked displeased at the decision but holstered her weapon nonetheless, she did give the fox blade a dirty look however.

Nim stretched out her arms towards Ash, palms open. Soon, the boxing gloves he saw when they meet just formed out of thin air covering her hand. " _Here yeah go! I'm so excited!_ " she whispered, her body trembling in anticipation at finally being really used by her driver!

Before Ash could respond, the thundering sound of running filled his ear, whoever it was, they were probably only half a minute away. He quickly just grabbed the weapons, sliding his arm into the gauntlets and grasping the metal rod inside. By the time he was finished, he could hear the steps in the hallway they nearly entered.

Ash took a deep breath, the footsteps were literally now just around the corner, it was time to pounce! He ran around and immediately threw a punch towards the individuals, only for the fist to make contact with a familiar flaming sword. His eyes opened wide in shocked at seeing the weapon, more so when he saw the person wielding it.

" **You!!!** " Ash and Rex shouted at each other in shock, recognizing the other, both parties leaping back to make distance between themselves. They both got into combat stances on instinct but we're interrupted when the rest of Ash's party ran around the corner to see what was happening.

" **Rex!!!** " Nia shouted in shock at seeing the salvager she meet only a few days ago. She was relieved to see him alright however, she didn't understand why he was here but had a good idea why though.

" **Nia!!!** " Rex shouted seeing the Gormotti girl he came to rescue. He was confused to why she was out of her cell and with the person who helped capture her, what was going on here?

"My lady! It's good to see you well!" Dromarch said pleased, glad his lady's was doing well from what he could see do far. He curiously turned his attention to Ash, who took a more relaxed stance as hostility seemingly decreased. "Your current company however, is quite peculiar. He helped in your capture and yet your traveling with him without any form of bondage," she had no cuffs or chains, she walked freely with him, it seemed something more was going on here.

Nia couldn't help the wide smile crossing her face at the sight of Dromarch, despite being only separated for at best a day, it felt far longer. "I'm fine Dromarch, it's good to see you alright," she said before squinting her eyes a little, focusing on his back. "Wait… why is your back fur all singed?" she just noticed the fur on his back was black, like it has been burnt recently.

"Oh that… It was miss Pyra who burnt my fur to free me, a small price to pay for our reunion," Dromarch told her, reminiscing about nearly getting burnt tender if it wasn't for his quick reflexes.

Pyra placed a hand over her chest before bowing her head slightly, embarrassment evident on her face. "I said I was sorry… I thought you'd be in the corner, not staring at the door while I melt it open," she said apologetically, hopefully her fellow blade wouldn't hold it against her. She refocused her attention on Ash and gave him a soft smile. "Hello again…" she said somewhat awkwardly, it was hard to talk to someone you fought before but she had a suspicion that he's on their side.

Before Ash could respond, Rex walked up to him and stared him dead in the eyes, gold meeting light brown. Everybody tensed up, except Tora and Poppi who simply looked confused at the tension between the two, they expected fists and weapons to fly at the intense standoff. "Why is Nia with you? Where were you taking her?" he questioned placing his hands on his wrist, his voice didn't show aggressition but it did show suspicion.

Nia butted in with a look of minor annoyance. "Rex, the guy broke me out of my cell and was gonna help me break out Dromarch out before helping me escape. He's on our side," she told him defending Ash, the last thing they need was the two of them to come to blows over this. Their last fight was quite destructive, something they should avoid in such closed space.

Rex contuined to stare into Ash's eyes, his emotion unknown to the raven haired teen, before stretching out is hand and his lips cracked into a grin. "The second rule of the salvager code: if somebody helps your mate, their your mate as well," he explained, all hostilities disappearing from his body language, getting a smile from Pyra and Nia, glad that he was willing for bygones be bygones.

The focus shifted to Ash, seeing if he'll accept the olive branch being offered. The raven haired teen simply smiled and grasped the offered hand tightly, he knew his fellow teen was one to let past transgressions go. "That's a good rule! But we're gonna have to end the pleasantries short for now, we need to get out quick," he finished on a serious note, sooner or later one of the guards he's knocked out so far is gonna wake up soon.

Rex simply nodded in agreement, with Nia here now their wasn't really any reason to stick around. "Agreed! We can't really go the way I came though…" he wasn't sure jumping down several stories onto a root was the best escape plan.

Suddenly, Tora came rushing forward, pushing Rex and nearly causing the brunette to fall nearly causing him to fall to the ground. "Tora know way out! Very close in fact!" the nopon said excitedly, ears stretched up in eager anticipation, he wanted help his friends even more than he already has.

Ash and Nia both looked at him with confusion, they never meet this character before. "Oi Rex! Who's the nopon? Been making friend while I was in the slammer?" she asked pointing to said nopon, she never meet the guy before in her life.

Rex nodded in understanding, him and Pyra only meet Tora the other day so he was still quite the stranger to even them. "His name is Tora. He was the one that shot the water pipe when we were fighting Brighid, he's been pretty helpful getting us to this point. We also help him built Poppi," he commented pointing to the robotic individual, who simply swung her arms in place eagerly listening in on the conversation.

Ash looked wide eyed at the robot, she looked so cool! " **You built that robot?! That's amazing!!!** " he rushed up to her and started walk circles around her, taking in every little detail. He's seen robots before but she looked the closest to passing as a human, except for her metal limbs and protrusions she could pass as one.

If robots could blush, Poppi would most definitely would be now at his amazement. "Masterpon built Poppi using schematics made by his Dadapon and Grampypon, he not built poppi entirely. Artificial blade was dream of theirs. Poppi is happy nonetheless to be operational," she said smiling at her creator, seemingly not caring that she undermined the achievement of her creator.

Zenobia hummed in thought taking in the situation, it was quite strange seeing her driver make friends with their former enemies. She turned to look at Nim but noticed her trembling, her eyes glued to the robot individual. "What's with you furry ears? You seem ready to hightail it out of here?" she asked curiously armed crossed, the woman was perfectly fine earlier but was now shaking in her non-existent boots.

"She's made out of metal… but alive. She's freaky…" Nim said shuttering just at the sight, she shouldn't be alive but she is. She wasn't saying she was a bad person and shouldn't exist, well she shouldn't, but it went against nature itself! If nature wanted metal to talk she would have, wouldn't be a pleasant experience for them though due to all metal humans use.

Zenobia sighed shaking her head, girl was way too much of a nature freak for her own good. "Well you better get used to her," Zenobia said ominously before floating over towards the group, she didn't need the constant yapping about nature and stuff.

Nim looked at Zenobia terrified at the thought, was she serious about her being around. Before she could question the blade about that, a sudden loud sound filled the room and a few lights started to flash a bright red colour. "What's going on?!" she shouted, she was like a new born with how little she knew about the world, this is all confusing to her.

"Seems one of our sleeping friends finally woke up," Ash said stroking his chin, thankfully they won't know where they are currently, meaning they can actually get out before they get swarmed by hundreds of soldiers. "Tora, you know a way out right? We need to get outta here right quick." they couldn't waste a second.

Tora looked shocked at suddenly being addressed but nodded nonetheless. "Yes! Hangar that way!" the nopon exclaimed, using his ear hands to point towards the hallway straight ahead. "Hangar and entrance connect! Tora read blueprints, very fun to do to pass time," he explained to them before running past them quickly, he needed to get out of here before mean Ardianians found him. Make him confess about 'borrowing' military supplies, Tora don't get locked up in stuffy cell!

The group just watched the small fur ball run past them for a few seconds. "He's a fast one when he wants to be eh?" Nia commented at the feat of speed the stubby legged person made, she never took nopons as the running type. The Gormotti woman leaped onto Dromarch, the feeling of his fur on her skin filling her with reassurance due to their reunion, and took off after nopon. "Lets go! I ain't going back into a cell anytime soon!" she shouted from over her shoulder, disappearing around the corner in seconds.

Poppi activated her leg thrusters and hovered above the ground. "Masterpon! Wait for Poppi!" she shouted, her creator and driver leaving her behind wasn't a nice thing to do. She blasted forward and disappeared around the corner as well, leaving a starry eyed Ash and Rex plus all their respective blades behind.

" **So cool!!!!** " Ash shouted at the sight, Poppi was the coolest robot he's ever seen, blew clembot out of the water easy. " **Lets go!!!** " He yelled, rushing forward in a attempt to catch up with the rest of the group, an impossible task since he wasn't going to use aura, reserving his supply when he actually needed it.

Zenobia quickly followed behind and passed Ash, her ability to hover and to manipulate the wind giving her great speed over him. Nim ran after him with Rex and Pyra coming up the rear. She easily caught up with him but unlike Zenobia, she slowed down and kept pace with him, running right beside him like Pyra did with Rex. The fox blade only gave him a warm smile when he gave her a curious look at why she didn't go ahead.

After about two minutes of running, Ash and the rest of the group who got left behind by the rest came to sudden stop. Tora, Poppi, Nia, Dromarch, and Zenobia stood in the middle of a large room with a locked metal door beside a large window, on the other side of the room having a open door leading to a hallway and above them was a second floor with a retracted ladder.

"Stupid thing…" Zenobia growled annoyed, punching the glass of the window with all her might trying to shatter it. Surprisingly, the window simply vibrated slightly from the force but remained mostly intact. The fact only causing her to growl in frustration and attempted the action again, only getting the same result.

"Don't bother. Only hurt hand." Tora told the blade matter of factly while Poppi was attempting to pry open the metal door, getting only failure for her efforts as she couldn't even get a grip. "Glass special. Hard to break, very thick. Better off trying to find controls, open door that way," he advised but the aggressive blade simply ignored him, alternating between punching the glass, kicking it, and smashing her axe onto it.

Nia looked around the room with Dromarch looking for anything that can get them past the door. "Where does that lead?" she asked pointing out some piping connected to the door and leading upwards, that must be something.

Tora looked at her direction and looked at the piping. "Ether pipes. Means terminal connected to door is close, looks to be above us. No way to get there from here," the nopon spoke, his eyes following the pipes to their source, a terminal just above them but without the ladder in place, how could they get up there to open the door to the hangar?

Ash hummed in thought at the situation, Rex argued for them to take the side passage to hopefully find away to the level above them, which most of the group agreed with. "Let's hold that plan off for a few seconds… I think I know a simpler way up there," he told them running up to Zenobia, ignoring the looks of curiosity his ragtag group of allies threw his way, the blade continuing to pry open the window with brute force.

Ash walked behind the fiery woman and tapped her shoulder, getting her attention just as she was raising her leg about to launch a kick at the window. "You told me 'all' your physical attributes are higher than.most blades right?" he asked her, noting how her gloves were stained red. Probably splitting her knuckles by punching the glass. "Your hand…" he spoke, tossing Nim's knuckle weapons onto the floor before grabbing her hand just as she lowered her leg, examining it and feeling it hoping it wasn't too serious damaged.

The platinum blonde blushed lightly as she felt her driver caress her hand, he was gentle as could be while examining it. She pulled her hand back and crossed her arms, trying to hide the blush subtly. "It's n-nothing.. We blades heal faster than humans, unless my core crystal breaks, I can't die.," she shrugged off his concern, though she did appreciate the fact he cared. Most driver she's seen usually were indifferent to blades, so they ignore any injuries since they know they'll survive.

Ash simply smiled at her, uncaring that her action could be considered rude. "Alright. So long as you're alright," he said his smile still in place, she was his friend and her well being mattered most, he'd be a bad partner if he didn't care. "So my earlier question?" he asked once more, needed to get to the point.

Zenobia simply nodded her head, nearly forgetting his original question when touched her. "Yeah but how's that supposed to help? I can't even break the glass, I don't think I'll fare much better against several inches of steel," she told him factly, messaging her damaged hands as they returned to a pristine white, like she wasn't just bleeding at all.

Ash simply grinned at her point, he didn't need her punching things. "Does that include your jumping abilities?" He inquired with a knowing grin, if he was right than pay dirt.

Zenobia opened her mouth to ask why her jumping ability mattered, seemed like a stupid thing to ask at this time. Instead, she just thought on it before it suddenly clicked in her head. "You want me to jump the both of us onto the second floor don't you?" she asked back, her own grin splitting across her face. She was starting to understand how her driver thought.

Tora jumped into the air in excitement, how didn't he think if something like that. "Of course. Simple, Tora should have thought of it," he said nodding his head, Poppi also had great jumping ability due to the thrusters in her legs, he should have thought about it. "Tora join you!" He said excitedly, running towards his blade to have her give him a lift.

Ash raised his hand to stop his action, best just for one of them to check things out. "I'll go up first, if I need you I'll probably shout," he told the nopon chuckling, if anything went wrong just follow the screaming, usually a good indicator. He and Zenobia walk to the middle of the room, the best position to land close to the terminal before nodding towards the blade. "Ready to leap?" he asked her, hopefully she could reach the height while carrying a passenger.

Zenobia simply placed one hand on her neck and slightly cracked her neck, enjoying the sound of her bones popping. "Yeah," was all she said before wrapping her left arm around his waist, pulling him closer to her before ending her usual floating effect. Her heels clinked on the metal floor as she landed. Right after, she bent her knees preparing for the jump.

Ash let out a startled yelp, the force as the two suddenly took to the air catching him off guard. The two nearly over shot their goal, the antenna on Zenobia's head scraping against the roof of the room, but the two landed a little bit away from the console. Zenobia's wind ability ensured them a soft and quiet landing, which was great! Since they landed behind two soldiers operating the console they were after.

"Do you really think leaving the entrance unguarded is smart?" one said in his thick accent, distinct from the accent Ash was used to, the soldiers probably weren't' Gormotti which is why they didn't share the same accent.

The other man simply shook his head. "Of course not! It's a daft decision, counselor Dughall ain't no military officer but it's his order. Disobey and he'll demote us to privates and keep us there for the rest of our lives," the other said typing something on the console, what Ash didn't know.

Zenobia let go of Ash, gently placing him onto the floor to make little noise. She grinned at her driver before clenching her fist and punching her other, opened palm, hand before pointing to the unaware guards.

Ash wasn't the best with hand gestures, never once winning a game of charades in his life, but her message was clear. Take down the guards, likely in a violent fashion. He gave her a thumbs up but just noticed something, he dropped his gauntlets on the bottom floor! "Uh… i dropped my knuckle weapons…" he whispered, he'd rather not waste aura pointlessly, also punching a metal helmet, even with aura, isn't really pleasant.

Zenobia sighed at his words, oh she liked her driver but he could do stupid things from time to time. "Just think about the weapon!" she hissed at him, she hated having to explain everything, though admittedly his ignorance wasn't unjustified.

Ash raised an eyebrow at the simple instruction, did he have the ability to summon the weapons at will? He closed his eyes and began to visualize the pair of boxing gloves, remembering every little detail he could. Nothing. He visualized himself grasping the weapon, the feeling of cold steel as he grasped them, making his hands grasping the imaginary weapons. He opened his eyes and looked in amazement as the weapon began to materialize in his hands, amazing!

With the weapons in hand, Ash nodded at his blade and quietly tiptoed his towards the two, the blade hovering silently beside him. The two of them each tapped the shoulder of one of the soldiers, the other hand pulled back ready to throw a punch.

"Finally our shift is over…" the soldier on the right said relieved, believing them to be there replacements

"Great, I'm done with this pos…. **wait your not~!** " the other said turning his head finally noticing the two of them aren't actually their placements. The shout caught the other's attention causing him to turn his head to look back.

It was too late. Ash and Zenobia threw their pulled back fists and hit the guards in the face, though Ash made sure he hit his target with purely the blunt part of his weapon. The force of the punches caused the soldiers' heads to whip backwards, dents appearing on their helmets and their glass eyeholed shattering. The force of the blows knocked them into the terminal they were working on, front of the consol denting and several buttons getting knocked loose.

"That ain't good!" Ash exclaimed rushing towards the terminal and pushing the unconscious soldiers off of it, preventing the sudden electrical discharge from possibly killing them and to check the damage. The console had two head shape indents and several buttons were knocked loose, the electricity jumping across was also not a positive sign.

 _This is why i wasn't allowed in the lab…_ Ash thought to himself, he never had the best of luck with technology, mostly breaking it in some fashion. He carefully pressed random buttons and flicked random switches, his hands playing a dangerous game as his hand dodged random sparks of electricity. "Oh they're gonna kill me for this…" he mumbled out loud, not noticing any tangible effects from his randomly pressing buttons.

Just as he turned and looked over the railing to tell the gang the bad news, and expecting a verbal lashing, Nim shouted. "The door opened! Ash did it! Come down so we can leave!" her voice held jubilation as she waved at him from the lower floor, obviously glad that their time in the ship was coming to a close.

Ash scratched his head in confusion at that statement, did him randomly pressing buttons actually open the door? Or was it the fact he broke it? "Uh i guess randomly breaking things does work from time to time…" he spoke to himself, noticing the rest of his party walking casually through the door and into the hangar.

Zenobia simply snorted at his comment, being the only one near him able to hear him. She placed a foot on the railing before looking downwards, readying to jump down. "All the time, it the more fun option either way. Let's hightail it out of here, this place as bore me enough as is," finishing her sentence, she leaped off and landed on the floor, her wind powers cushioning her fall.

Ash grinned, gotta love Zenobia's simple logic when it comes to these things. Following his blade's lead, he placed his foot on the railing before vaulting over the railing, plummeting quickly towards the floor. At the last possible moment before impact, he pumped aura into his legs, a precaution so he didn't accidently break his legs.

Landing on the ground with a loud thud beside her, the force of the impact sendung a shock through his body. The two quickly went towards the now open door and walked through it. Ash took in his new surroundings.

The hangar was large and spacious, a nice change from the cramp and confined hallways of the rest of the ship. Ash didn't see any smaller ships inside, what he believed should be inside a hangar, but found several large metal crates about twice his own height stacked around. Probably containing parts and maybe even weapons inside, he wasn't going to open one to find out though.

Scanning the room, his eyes fell apon another metal door that was twice as wide as the door they just entered from. "I'm guessing that's the exit? Also locked…" he muttered annoyingly, and to top it off, he didn't see any way of opening it, not on the level they were on anyway.

The group let out a unified frustrated sigh, it seemed all that work only lead to a dead end. They turned around about to leave, hoping they could find an alternate route, but the sound of metal scrapping against metal caught their intention and made them turn to face the door. It was opening!

As the door slid to the side, they could now see who opened. _Isn't that counselor Dughall?_ Ash thought seeing the portly man walk into the hangar with a rifle in hand, a very large knight looking creature, probably a blade, with tree trunk wide arms flanking the pompous man. He was defintely not aware that the man was a driver, seemed like a guy who'd much rather be in a office than on a battlefield.

"Well look what we have here? A bunch of vermin running amok," Dughall snorted out in disdain, his eyes scanning the group until his eyes landed on Pyra. His eyes glistened at her and a devious grin spread across his face. "Except for you my Aegis, a gem among the filth," he commented, exaggerating his compliment with hand gestures. The shy blade sent a soft glare at the man and walked behind her driver.

"Who the heck is this guy?!" Rex growled out in anger, the way this creeped looked at Pyra boiled his blood. Who did this guy think he was ogling his blade?!

Nia huffed at seeing the man, already appearing tired of the guy. "Counselor Dughall. He administers Gormott for Mor Ardian, a pompous buffoon who thinks way too highly of himself," she explained in disdain, she only met the man once but already had dealt with the man more than she liked.

Dughall got red in the face at her words, obviously he didn't like her comment. " **Buffoon?!?!** " he yelled enraged, the man's face was almost as red as a tomato, not flattering his facial features at all. "This 'Buffoon' is about to capture the Aegis! This 'Buffoon' will be hailed a hero for stopping a terrorist and her accomplices! You shouldn't call someone stupid when they hold all the cards!" he growled out pointing his rifle at the Gormotti girl, who was unfazed by his yelling.

Before Nia could retort, most likely another needling sentence to get under the man's skin, Ash stepped forward. "Why is the Aegis so important? Aren't you being treacherous by doing this?" the youth asked crossing his arms, making sure to not stab himself on Nim's knuckle weapon. He was stretching his neck quite far just to get his grubby hands on Pyra, especially when he had quite the high position.

Dughall snorted at the questions,like it was beneath him to answer it. "A traitor calling someone 'treacherous'? You'll be executed for assisting a terrorist! I knew from the first moment I saw you that you were scum!" he exclaimed dramatically, Ash simply cleaned his ears with his pinky, unfazed by the accusations. "But if you are so curious, I'll tell you. Many parties are quite interested in that blade and would pay millions for her! Who wouldn't desire such? Only a fool!" he explained his motives.

Ash removed his pinky from his ear before shaking it, removing what little ear wax it culminated. He focused on Nim's weapon once more and it appeared once more on his expose hand, he'd have to get used to such a useful ability. "One problem with that master plan," he told the counselor, taking a few steps forward and kept his relaxed posture.

Dughall tilted his head and scowled, placing his hand below his fat chin in a posture of thought. "What are you talking about boy? My plan is flawless," his tone held ultimate confidence in his plan, to the man the plan seemed like it couldn't fail.

Ash took a few steps forward before stopping, only a yard separating him from Dughall. "Did you ever consider…" he didn't finish his question, just staring at the portly man with a hint of a grin on his face. Suddenly, he pumped aura into legs and shot forward towards the counselor, right arm pulled back to throw a punch. He covered the distance in less than a second, causing Dughall to stumble back in shock and fear as the youth neared him. Ash threw his fist, making sure that only upper half of his knuckle weapon connected, he didn't want to kill the guy.

Unfortunately, the punch didn't connect with the man's face. The bulky blade rose his tree trunk arm and intercepted the blow, the blades of the weapon cutting and lodging themselves painfully into the limb. The blade let out a pain whine as blood started to ooze from the nasty cut, a good amount staining Ash's weapon.

Dughall let out a laugh as Ash tried to pry the claw-like blades from the flesh of his blade. " **Dolmes! Crush that traitor!!!** " the man ordered to his partner, holding his rifle readying to fire.

Dolmes didn't say anything, simply raising his other arm which held his hammer, readying it to bring down on the currently stuck teen.

" **Ash!!!** " Nia shouted seeing the danger her newest ally was in, the rest of the group was too shocked and flabbergasted at the sudden events to move. Nia charged forward, chakrams in hand, to aid her friend but was stopped when she had to block a bullet aimed at her head. She turned her head to glare at Dughall, is rifle smoking making him the obvious culprit. " **Bastard!!!** " she yelled but was forced to block another shot, the man was intent at stopping assistance for the raven haired teen.

Ash struggled trying to pry himself away from Dolmes, the blade's body actually regenerating around his blades making it difficult to remove them. The teen noticed the large hammer above him, about to come down and make him flat as a pancake, and decided he had to get out now! Pumping aura into his right arm, he pulled with all his might to dislodge the weapon. With the increased strength from his aura, he was able to rip out the weapon, the serrated blades ripping out chunks of flesh and causing blood to splatter, hitting the teen on the right side of his face, blinding his right eye.

Ash quickly strengthened his legs and jumped back, ignoring the blood on his face for the moment, which was the right thing to do.

Dolmes screamed at the grievous wound inflicted and swung his hammer down to punish the culprit. Luckily, the strike missed the teen by a few centimeters and only hit the metal floor. The blow easily dented the floor and the wind created by the force knocking Ash's hat off.

 _That was way too close!_ Ash thought taking a few steps back from where he landed, his right eye closed to stop the blood from the blade getting into his eye. With his one still open eye, he noticed Dolmes charging forward as he brought his weapon back into a position to swing. Obviously he wasn't going to give him the time to get his bearings.

Just as the blade got near, Ash getting into a boxing stance, a fireball nailed the creature in the face, causing it to stumble back. Soon after, a round projectile hit the creature in the leg forcing it to take a knee for a split second. Suddenly, he felt a pair of furry hands wrap around him from his blind spot and guide him towards the way he came from, the sound of battle raging on behind him.

"That's a lot of blood on your face!" Nim's voice shouted as they stopped fair ways away from, hopefully they'd have enough time to allow him to recover. Ash felt something soft and furry rubbing against his face, his open eye only seeing white and pink. "I hope it's not yours, that would be a really nasty cut to have so much blood!" she told him worriedly, her concern for his well being was quite heartwarming.

"Nim it's not mine, took a chunk out of the blade and it splattered over my face," Ash explained to ease the blade's worry, though he did greatly appreciate it and her help with cleaning his face. After about ten seconds, he pulled away and opened his right eye, giving it a few blinks to make sure nothing was inside. He was greeted by the concern face of his fox blade, which morphed into one of relief at seeing he was uninjured, Kit and Sunny remained indifferent.

"No wound… that's good. I thought you got seriously hurt when everything happened so fast and you had blood all over you when I got to you!" Nim hurriedly told him, bringing her hands back to her side while the two serpent foxes nip at her hair. She moved her hands to her hair and forced them away, this was serious moment. "You can't just rush in like that! I'm sure your very capable but we blades support and protect our drivers! We can't do that when you simply run off like that," she chastised him, trying to fight off tears, the thought of her driver getting killed or seriously injured distressing her.

Ash gave her a sad smile, he felt guilt well up at causing her so much distress and concern. He was so caught up at trying to end the situation as quickly as possible, he didn't even consider his allies. He was used to taking charge and the initiative, always expecting have his pokémon know what he was thinking and to jump in. "I'm sorry Nim… I won't do anything crazy or reckless without letting you know," he reassured, he wanted to give her more than just a few words, a pant on the shoulder perhaps. But, the raging battle behind him was too much of a pressing matter.

The two turn their heads so they can look at the fight that was occuring. Currently, it was an awkward standstill. Rex, Nia, and Zenobia faced the large blade Dolmes directly, or trying to. No matter how badly they cut, bruised, or burnt him, the blade just kept healing and fighting, swung his hammer and free arm in wide arcs that proved efficient to keep them back. They tried instead to target Dughall but the cowardly counselor kept hiding behind his blade, which always extended an arm or got in the way of any attack or attacker that went to the portly man. Said man kept popping his head around the blade and took potshots at them with surprising accuracy, which made approach even harder.

 _That cowardly little!_ Ash thought growling out loud at the tactics, hearing a similar, but more animalistic, growl from his right. He turned his head to see Nim with slit in her eyes, giving her a feral and vicious appearance, a far cry from her usually kind demeanor. It didn't take a genius to know that she despised what she was seeing and probably would maul Dughall if she got her paws on him.

Despite how unethical it was, Ash had to admit it was an effective tactic. If what Zenobia said was true about a blade's regenerative powers, that thing was an impregnable meat shield and Dughall knows it. _Need to disable it somehow…_ he thought looking around, if they could temporarily immobilize Dolmes, than all it would take would be one good blow to knock out the cowardly driver.

As he searched for a solution, he noticed a large stack of metal crates precariously stacked, could easily crush someone... "Zenobia! Tora! Poppi!" Ash called out, hopefully his plan would work but he needed a lot of muscle to actually pull it off.

Zenobia ears perked at her driver calling her, narrowly dodging a swing from her opponents tree trunk arm. She jumped into the air and would land right next to him, leaving Rex and Nia to keep their enemies occupied.

Tora and Poppi weren't too far away from the crates, the nopon standing back and using his shield to fire rounds, offering support. At being called, the duo looked over to Ash and shrugged their shoulders. The artificial blade picked up her master and used her thrusters to launch herself into like Zenobia, landing near him and dropping the nopon onto the floor. "Called Tora?" he asked curiously, wondering why he was called.

Ash simply nodded his head before crouching, a bullet whizzing overhead. "i have a plan..." he said before whispering his plan to them, so Dughall and his blade didn't learn what was going on.

After about ten seconds of whispering, Ash looked towards Poppi. "Think your strong enough to pull it off?" he inquired, if she didn't have enough strength, he doubted Zenobia could do it by herself. Though he wouldn't tell that to her face.

Poppi simply nodded in confirmation. "Yes, with Zenobia's help, Poppi can manage," the machine said with confidence.

"Alright let's do this!" Ash shouted before running towards Dolmes, Zenobia near his rear and Poppi on his flank with Tora continued to offer range support, making sure he was away from the crates. The teen slide on the metal floor, dodging a hammer swing, before jumping back onto his feet and delivering a blow to the bladed none existent chin.

"Is that all you got? No wonder he uses you as a meat shield, you couldn't hit a bunnit with that swing!" Ash trashed talked the blade, pulling his other arm back and delivered another blow to the chin.

The blade growled in annoyance at the taunt and lifted his free hand, readying to backhand the mocking teen. He swung the massive limb towards the teen who simply grinned, annoying the blade further.

Just as the arm neared, Ash pumped aura into his leg and jumped over the appendage. "Poppi now!" he shouted out towards the robot, this was their chance.

"Roger!" Poppi responded, appearing a few feet away to his left, right in the way of the attack. The artificial blade opened her arms wide and caught the limb, her feet grinding against the metal floor as she was pushed back an inch. She suddenly stopped, all the power behind the attack used up. She grasped the arm tightly, stopping Dolmes from pulling back.

"Zenobia your up!" Ash ordered out just as he landed onto the floor, they needed to disable the other arm before he crushes poppy.

"On it!" She called out rushing forward, blast of wind propelling her forward at incredible speed. She stopped on the other side of Dolmes, the blade beginning to raise its hammer to.crush the blade holding his arm. Before he could get too high, the platinum blonde grabbed its arm.

"Now!" Ash yelled out, the shout causing Nia and Rex to look at what he was doing, even Dughall look flabbergasted.

Zenobia and Poppi let out grunts of effort, both getting into position to throw the large blade over their shoulders. Despite Dolmes resistance, the two blades were able to lift their massive relative. With one fluent motion, the duo threw the blade over their shoulder and directly into the large stack of crates.

Dolmes crashed into the crates back first, causing a loud thud to reverberate throughout the hangar. The blade slowly started to get up, rubbing it's head in pain, before a crate fell on top of him and forced back onto the floor. The first was followed by a second crate, than a third, crates pelleted the blade for a solid ten seconds, their content spilling out occasionally. When the assault finally ended, the bulky knight was buried under several tons of crates, weapons, ammunition, and metal parts, only his hands sticking out from under his makeshift tomb.

Ash whistled at his handy work, he doubted the blade could barely move under that, let alone get out. "Well he's taken care of. Now that only leaves you consul," he whirled his head towards the portly man, the guy had a look of shock at the condition of his blade. The raven haired teen slowly walked up to the man, his knuckle weapon blades glowing ominously as they space between them disappeared.

Dughall was knocked out of his shocked and looked terrified as the teen neared him. "G-Get back you urchin!" the man yelled aiming his rifle at the teens head. Despite the easy shot, he didn't pull the trigger knowing that without his blade, the others would kill him. He dropped the gun and got onto his knees, holding his hands in begging position. "Please don't kill me! I have gold, a lot of it! It's yours if you please don't kill me!" the man begged, he was almost to tears.

The rest of the party walked up and stared down at the man, a look of disdain was obvious on both Nia and Nim's face. "Sure," Ash accepted the man's offer, the rest of the group giving him looks of shock at him accepting the bribe. Nim and Nia were about to protest but the teen raised one arm to silence them for the moment. The fox blade begrudgingly followed the order while the Gormotti huffed but didn't say anything.

Dughall looked up at the teen and let out a relief sigh, getting back up. "Seems you'rea reasonable person," he said gratefully, pulling out two large and stuff sacks from his rear pouch before dropping them on the floor. "Five thousand gold a bag. That's all i have at the moment, i can double it if need be," the man looked in physical pain at that statement, he really was a cheapskate.

"No that's enough. Pleasure doing business," Ash reassured the man, donkey kicking the bags towards Zenobia who picked them up. Suddenly, he pulled his fist back and socked the man across the face, the force causing Dughall to spin once before collapsing onto the floor. "What? He said not to kill him, he's alive," the teen said turning to his party, who all had their mouths wide open at what happen.

Nia was the first to recover and walked up beside him, wrapping an arm across his shoulders. "I'm really starting to like you Ash, scamming him out of money before socking him one? Amazing," she told him with a toothy grin, she knew he wasn't one to throw his believes away for some gold.

Ash returned the grin but ducked under her arm and ran towards the exit. "Let's go!" nothing stood in there way now, they can finally escape.

The rest of the group followed behind him, Zenobia carrying Ash's new found fortune. The feeling of the cool night air was amazing on his skin, he almost wanted to savour it. He quickly ran up to the crates he hid his backpack behind, swiftly strapping it onto his back before running full speed towards the exit. Torigoth could be spotted just beyond, so close!

Just when only five yards separated the party from the exit, a wall of blue flames shot out in front of the exit blocking their way out. "This is way too familiar…" Rex said drawing his sword, this reminded him way too much of yesterday.

The wall suddenly split open and two figures walked through the opening, the flames dancing around them giving them a foreboding and ominous appearance. When the two people were beyond the wall, the flames closed the opening like they had a mind of their own.

"I'm disappointed in your choices Ash. I expected better judgement on your part," Brighid said, a look of disappointment on her face as she stared at him, such potential now going to be wasted in a prison cell.

"I get told that a lot…" Ash told the lavender haired beauty, will this night ever end?

 **-End-**

 **Welp that's it. Next up we got aura guardian vs special inquisitor. Don't worry, it's still gonna be a tough fight and he'll definitely not walk away without burns and cuts.**


	7. Guardian vs Inquisitor

**Xenoblade Chronicles belongs to Monolith Studios and Pokémon belongs to Gamefreak. I own and profit nothing from this!**

 **-Chapter Begins-**

The standoff was quite tense, for at least one party. Ash and his allies didn't dare launch the first blow, knowing the strength of Brighid well and unsure of her driver, she was possibly a very dangerous unknown so leaping into a fight was unwise. The other party seemed content at the moment just watching them, Ash felt her analytic stare wash over him, like she was dissecting him down to his most basic parts. Maybe she was trying to figure out his most likely course in a fight, he seriously didn't know he just didn't like it.

Seeing as he had time, he decided to give her the same treatment. Woman was definitely military, her outfit was more decorated than the usual uniform but it was still quite practical, no pointless frills or anything that might hinder her movements in anyway. If he was being honest, she looked very masculine and from a distance he would mistake her for a man. Only her more feminine facial features and her… bust that allowed him to figure out her gender. He didn't need an Anabel situation, he made quite the fool of himself thinking she was a boy but not this time!

While Ash was analyzing the stranger, Mórag and Brighid were having a conversation inaudible to their opponent.

"So that's the recruit? One to change sides quite quickly it seems," Mórag commented, grip tightening on her sword whips. One thing she couldn't tolerate were traitors.

"I'm not entirely surprised. He was seen visiting Nia just before you arrived. I don't believe him one to switch sides easily, merely one to fight for his own personal morals," Brighid told her, from what she heard from his superior officers and fellow soldiers he had strong sense of good. Obviously when learned of the execution of someone he believed good, he'd attempt to rescue her. Under most circumstances, she'd see such a trait as quite admirable. Sadly, this was not such a circumstance.

Mórag nodded in understanding, it seemed he too bought into her lie about executing the terrorist. "He as two rare blades… he's only awoken two core crystals correct?" she asked her blade curiously, having one rare blade was quite hard, any discovered are usually closely guarded, but getting two seemed near improbable.

Brighid nodded her in response, the army's supply of core crystals was closely guarded, she doubted he could have broken in to awaken several others. "Yes… this proves my theory. That boy as the ability to awaken rare blades no matter the core crystal. I hardly doubt he could be so lucky to just stumble onto two rare core crystal," she explained, exposing her true reasoning to giving Ash a core crystal. She wanted to see if his first awakening was merely luck with flair or if the light show actually affected the resonating process in some form. This seems to prove her theory and might be connected to the whispers she heard and feeling she felt earlier in the day.

Mórag hummed in thought at that news, she never heard of such an ability but that didn't matter, the ramifications it had did. That boy could potentially resonate with who knows how many rare blades, that could make him a powerful asset. Or a dangerous enemy. "First the aegis and now this… seems the architect enjoys complicating matters for us," she never suspected such things, too many variables and unknowns at play at once muddy the situation greatly. They were only meant to lure out the aegis to end any threat she could pose, not possibly create another threat.

"Hey you! Your that special inquisitor I've heard about?" Ash asked out loud, getting the attention of the two and prying them away from the conversation.

"I am." Mórag said simply eyeing the boy, analyzing every about him, trying to predict from the subtle movements of his body what he'll do. Despite the reports and information provided to her by Brighid, he was an unknown and his actions were unpredictable.

"Why were you going to execute Nia?" Ash asked her seriously, that one question had been nagging him since he heard it. He tried thinking of every reason why she'd want to kill her but couldn't think of it unless it was something personal, admittedly he didn't know everything that was going on. He just couldn't see a practical reasoning for wanting to kill her.

"Wait what?" Nia looked at Ash confused at his statement, she wasn't going to be executed, just transported to Mor Ardian. She turned her head to stare at Rex but he too had a serious look like he was thinking the same thing. "What is he talking about Rex?" she asked the scavenger in confusion, something smells fishy here, and not the pleasant kind of fishy smell.

Rex looked at her back, a similar look of confusion on his face at her not knowing. "I heard around town that they were going to execute you in the morning. That's why we attempted this rushed rescue," he explained to her, why did it seem like she was totally ignorant to that fact?

"I heard about it in the barrack, reason why I busted you out," Ash reaffirmed Rex's statement, word of the execution wormed its it's way to even the ranks of the soldiers.

Nia looked extremely confused by this, where in the world would such a rumor come from? To circulate not only amongst the populace of Torigoth but also the ranks of the army, which she was captive of, made no sense. Unless… "You spread the lie of me being executed didn't you?!" the gormotti said angrily, pointing to Mórag who seemed to have the briefest of knowing smiles on her lips, a subtle indication of the claim being true.

Ash was confused by that, so this entire execution thing was simply a lie? But why? Before he could voice his thoughts, someone beat him to it.

"So this was just a trap uh?" Zenobia said arms crossed, having dropped the money bags on the floor. "You knew that the aegis and her driver would try to break out their friend. So you fabricated this rumor to speed them up so you can capture them, like a bunnit with a meaty carrot as bait," she said sounding mildly impressed, being an advert hunter herself, mostly for strong enemies rather than for just sport or food, she could respect a well executed trap. Though she wasn't exactly fond of the idea of being the prey in the scenario.

"So that means we…" Ash said gritting his teeth at the realization of the situation.

"Yup. We could have done nothing and she wouldn't have died. We're just an extra bunnit caught in the trap," Zenobia said casually cracking her neck using her hands, well nothing they could do about it now, their already in the fire. They agreed on to go into this with no regrets. Sure, technically it was entirely pointless since she wouldn't die but they didn't know it at the time. She was tired of the army anyway so either way she was perfectly fine with this.

Ash didn't like getting trick but still this all seemed overly elaborate to him, just to capture this one girl, he didn't understand why. Sure, she was pretty strong if the fight they had was anything to go by but Brighid seemed even stronger in certain ways. "Why do all this? What's so important about Pyra that you'd spread a rumor not only amongst the population of Torigoth but also the army of your own country? This seems too elaborate for just one blade," he asked Mórag, he could understand Dughall's reasoning for wanting her, the guy was just really greedy so selling Pyra for money made sense. This person? Something tells me she ain't like him.

"So you don't know?" Mórag asked with a hint of surprise, admittedly it was nearly five hundred years since the Aegis war but tales of the Aegis' power persisted even to this day. "The aegis is no mere simple blade. I know you clashed blades with the aegis the day before with Brighid, even held your own by reports. But you only had a taste of the power she wields," she told to him, the supposed scale of the aegis ability he faced was nowhere near the level told in the history books, leveling Torigoth to the ground should be child's play yet she struggled against a single inexperienced driver, even a unique one.

Ash crossed his arm before slightly turning his head, staring at Pyra from the corner of his eye. "Only a taste?" he asked out loud, keeping one of his eyes on the blade but also keeping his eyes on Mórag and Brighid. For all he knew this might be some trick to throw him off guard, he literally did that against Dughall like three minutes ago.

"Indeed," Mórag said simply walking forward slightly, her dual rapiers burning with the powerful blue flames her partner wielded. "In fact, that blade sank three continents to the cloud sea nearly five hundred years ago," she explained to him in a matter of fact tone, not in a sense she knew her answer was superior, her point was back by fact.

" **Three Continents?!?!** " Ash yelled out in shock at that statement, was she really that powerful to do that? Admittedly, a continent in Alrest was probably just a very big titan, like the one he was standing on, not a massive landmass like back home which diminishes the feat slightly. But nonetheless, she'd be one of the strongest beings he's meet, and one of the few of those beings that didn't try killing him at first. Okay, they fought but she didn't try to kill him.

" **Pyra did that?!** " Rex shouted in disbelief at turning his head to look at his blade, her head down and biting her lip. "No way! She wouldn't do something like that! Your talking nonsense!" he told her venemously with a look of anger, no way could she do the things Mórag was implying. She was too sweet and kind to sink titans just for kicks, killings millions, just imagining her as some villain seemed ludicrous to him.

"I speak nothing but historical facts. That blade could sunder Alrest itself if left unchecked," Mórag told them bluntly, the boy believed the aegis didn't have the will to perform such devastation but the potential of it was still there. "For that fact, I must capture her here. I will not allow her to roam freely with such power unchecked," her tone held no room for negotiation or compromise, she will do everything within her power to subdue the aegis.

" **You just want to use her as some weapon! Planning to sink Uraya uh?!** " Rex accused with a growl grasping his weapon, that seemed like something they might do. It was no secret both sides were preparing to bloody each other in a another war, with a power like that nobody could stop Mor Ardian.

Mórag outwardly didn't react to his statement, in her mind however she slightly flinched at the teen's accusation. She was sure there were a few in the Senate who'd love to use the aegis for such a reason, making more prudent for her to capture her here and to keep such power away from those warhawks. "That is what I mean to prevent. Her falling in the hands of any nation would have disastrous results," she explained tiredly running out of patience, she wanted to end this affair as quickly as possible.

"I get you now…" Ash said scratching his chin, everything was starting to make sense to him finally. "You don't want her to be used as a weapon, not by your country or any other. You want to capture her and lock her away somewhere none could get their hands on her, if nobody has her, nobody can start destroying titans and killing a lot of people. Right?" he said with a grin, this Mórag fellow wasn't really a bad person either if that's true, she's just afraid of the power Pyra wields.

Mórag kept her poker face up but she was surprised he figured out her reasoning, though her words did indicate somewhat her motivation. "For someone regarded as not having much knowledge, you deduced my motivation in our short chat. Impressive," this boy was well known for not being knowledgeable, it seemed even the most basic facts on Alrest was lost to this boy. Despite that, he saw through her words to dig up her motivation from them, he might have made quite the inquisitor.

"I must admit, I ain't the sharpest tool in the shed in most things," Ash told her honestly, he barely passed his trainer written test years before, which could have ended his trainer career before it began. He just wasn't book smart, barely could stay awake to actually read one completely. "But I can read people well. You got good intentions, in your own way anyway," admittedly, spreading a lie across an entire population wasn't exactly morally right, especially when its to imprison someone innocent for life. Her heart was in the right place though, that counts somewhat.

"If you know that, assist me in subduing her than. If you aid me in arresting her, consider yourself pardoned for the crimes you committed tonight," Mórag offered to the teen causing surprise in everyone, even her own blade was slightly taken back by the offer but understood her reasoning in a few seconds. By getting him to join her side, it would still benefit them greatly and make the capture go down more smoothly. He did do them favours tonight anyway, exposing Dughall for his corruption tonight was quite the favor, she'll have to remember to ready a full investigation on his contacts and allies back in Mor Ardian

Rex and the rest of the group turned to look at the back of Ash's head, who was scratching his chin in thought, cautious if he'll actually accept the offer. Except Tora and Poppi, they lacked any background with him so they doubted he'd accept the offer.

 _Will he go for it..?_ Nia asked herself somewhat unsure, it was true that he came to rescue her and fought probably dozens of people to save her but that was because of the pretense of her being killed. With that dispelled now, would he turn on her? It was pretty good deal honestly, all your crimes simply forgotten and he'd be fighting with Brighid, it would be an easy fight if their last brawl was anything to go by. _Well… all I can do is trust him to stick by us._ she thought, hell she's been trusting him this whole night and he never done her wrong. Why doubt him now?

"Sorry to say Mórag but no deal," Ash told her bluntly with a smile, he almost sounded somewhat cheerful at rejecting her generous offer. Zenobia nodded her head in approval at the rejection, mostly because she wanted a second whack at Brighid. Nim clapped happily at his denial as well making the trio entirely in agreement, she actually quite like the group she was with so didn't want to fight them. Plus, not being around all the machinery soon is a great bonus for her!

"So that's your answer than? You disappoint me boy," Mórag said sounding somewhat disappointed in his choice, it would have been beneficial for her to have him join her. Things never seem to go her way today, outside of the driver of the aegis falling for the bait of course. "Than here's my second offer, to all of you. Surrender and nobody needs to get hurt," she warned them as the flames surrounding her lit up in a intensity, a demonstration of what they'll face.

"Sorry but I'm gonna say no to that as well, I ain't letting you lock up somebody just because they have the potential to do something. Maybe she can destroy Alrest but that ain't enough for me to let you throw her in some forgotten hole to rot!" Ash shouted, the knuckle weapon he held disappearing and being replaced with Zenobia's axe. He knew the wind blade wanted to settle a score with Brighid and he wasn't going to stop her, not like he'd hear the end of it from her if he didn't. "My counter offer, just step aside," he warned her giving the massive axe a practice diagonal swing, causing a strong wind to shoot up and kick up some dust.

"That's right! We ain't letting Pyra go with you!" Rex said with renewed confidence in his chances at defeating this stranger, it's gonna be four against one, how could she win against that many drivers? Pyra looked between the teens and couldn't help but let a smile caress her face, having friends who'd stand by her no matter what helped her reminded of the old days.

"Be cautious Rex. That is the flamebringer, the strongest driver in the entire empire. Taking her lightly would be a fatal error, even with these odds we might not come out victorious," Azurda warned his former charge sticking his body out of Rex's diving helmet, caution was a must against this duo. He knows from experience the strength Brighid wields and thought he never seen Mórag fight in person, her reputation spread quite far and even reached his own formerly gigantic ears.

"Gotcha Gramps. I already know what the blade is capable of, that's an advantage right?" Rex asked trying to remain positive about the situation, he had knowledge on her blade and outnumbered her three fold. There couldn't be such a massive gap between Brighid having and not having a driver right?

"Than we are at a impasse. I'd hope to end this without a fight but it seems violence is inevitable," Mórag said coldly, she'd prefer to resolve this with words and facts. But it seems these two are too stubborn to see the bigger picture, how dangerous the aegis truly was.

"That's unfortunate, but I agree. Seems words ain't doing anymore good," Ash said placing his axe on his shoulder, he really wasn't looking for fight, he just wanted out of here and to try to figure out a way back home. But he can't do either with fire blocking the way out. "Get ready, I don't think this gonna be like Dughall," he warned his allies who were readying their own weapons, he doubted that fancy title of her's was just empty words.

Suddenly, Mórag launched herself towards Ash, the good four yards separating them gone in a moment. She thrusted her right rapier forward aiming at his chest but the teen side steps the attack just in time. However, her attack wasn't over. Like a coiled snake, the blade changed into its whip form and shot forward towards Nia who was in the back of the group. The girl's eyes widen and she raises both of her chakrams to defend, the tip of Mórag's sword slamming into them just before it could tear into flesh. The force knocked the Gormotti off her feet and sent her flying back, slamming into Dromarch who cushioned her fall.

With a simple twist of her wrist, Mórag had the extended blade begin to retract to its sword form. She flicked the hilt of her blade, causing the returning pieces angle themselves to strike at Rex, catching the salvager off guard. He raised his sword and struck the extend whip but that only cause a piece of the rapier to catch on his blade, it's pulling force causing him to lurch forward and making him trip on the floor, dropping his sword in the process. Ash raised his axe to strike back but was stopped at the sight of her second blade coming at his ribs, he forgot about the second blade at the flashy demonstration. He sidestepped again but this time she cut into his uniform, the feeling of the heated steel scraping against his bare skin was unpleasant to say the least.

Ash quickly decided to jumped away to make distance between them, the searing pain from earlier disappearing entirely due to his aura soothing his pain. Before Mórag could pursue him, she was forced to crane her neck back to narrowly dodge a baseball sized projectile courtesy of Tora. The woman suddenly rushed forward, charging the nopon who panicked due to lacking combat experience. He fired several more projectiles wildly at her, Ash even forced to dodge a few, but none hit the Inquisitor who merely sliced any that could hit in half. The inventor raised his shield over his eyes just as it appeared she was about to strike him, breaking eye contact. A mistake.

Mórag quickly sidestepped around the nopon, she was now at his back without him knowing. She raised her blade but wasn't going for a lethal blow, it was obvious she was going to smash the hilt into his head to knock him out. "Masterpon behind you!" Poppi shouted in distress as she rushed forward to intercept her but the distance was too great for her to reach. Luckily for Tora, a wind blade rushed right over his head, cutting the tip of his mohawk, that forced the inquisitor to block the attack instead of carrying through with her attack. The wind blade pushed her back a few feet but other that, she was unharmed. The nopon quickly whipped around to see his enemy and aimed his shield to fire at her but when he pressed the trigger nothing, he merely received a clicking noise.

"Why shield go sad 'click-click' and not mighty 'boom-boom'?!" Tora panicked shaking his weapon viciously to try and get it to work, maybe something was wrong with the trigger mechanism or the loading mechanism jammed somehow?

"Masterpon use all ammo when wildly firing like panicked Armu," Poppi explained raising a hand and point behind him, pointing out various impact spot that his shots hit, most in wild direction not even where their enemy was. It seemed her Masterpon still had a ways to go before becoming a true driver. But what was to be expected when he only had a day worth of experience?

"Meh-Meh…" Tora said sadly, without any ammo for his shield, he was severely limited in battle now. Now he had to face scary Ardain driver up close, not very tempting idea. "Tora gonna get flattened like pancake…" the nopon said losing confidence in his abilities to add his sideki- friends in this battle.

"Don't give up yet!" Ash shouted from behind him, leaping over the nopon with his axe held high about to bring it down on Mórag. Unfortunately, she raised one blade and stopped his attack dead with that motion, she didn't even budge a centimeter. The teen fire a wind blade from the axe head which pushed him away, avoiding a possible counter and landing right in front of Tora. "I know she's really strong and kinda scary…" he said turning his head slightly to look at Tora, his hands shaking slightly in minor fear of his enemy, it didn't take a genius to figure out she was strong. Maybe even too strong for him. Or all of them for that matter.

"Despite that… doing nothing won't help anyone," Ash said with an encouraging smile, usually he wouldn't pep talk someone in the middle of a battle, pokemon or otherwise, but Rex and Nia got their act together after Mórag's initial attack and were now engaging her. He had some time. Not much though. "All of us working together, we can beat her," he told the nopon before charging forward to rejoin the brawl, he needed to keep the pressure on her.

Tora looked on at the fight, seeing Mórag kick Rex-Rex in the gut sending him stumbling back while creating a wall of flames forcing Nia back before she could flank the woman. _Ash-Ash is right… What point of being driver if Tora can't help friends in need? Tora will help in whatever way he can!_ The nopon thought with renewed confidence, his friends needed him and he wasn't going to run and hide like he's done before when trouble knocked. He'll face it head on with friends and Poppi!

"Poppi! Use Noponic Storm!" Tora shouted throwing the large shield at his blade, who caught it effortlessly with her superior strength. Four separate sections of the shield folded inwards and formed a drill at the center of the shield. The newly formed drill started to spin rapidly, making a distinct screeching noise that got the attention of everyone else. Suddenly, a mini hurricane of sand was shot out of the drill and rushed towards Mórag who was currently engaged in melee combat with both Ash and Rex, managing both teens quite well.

Mórag noticed the attack heading her way and attempted to disengage her current opposition, however they made it difficult. Both brought their respective weapon crashing down on her, forcing her to block both weapons with her own, locking her in place. Despite that, she turned the tables. She dispelled her weapons and leaped back, causing both Ash and Rex to stumble forward, now in the line of the Tora's attack and the Inquisitor wasn't.

 _ **Not good!**_ Both teens mentally thought as the attack was about to hit them, even Ash with his aura couldn't speed away at this distance. Luckily, both Pyra and Nim stepped in front of the attack, putting up a double layered barrier that stopped the attack. The attack dissipated after a few second allowing both blades to end the barrier and let out a relieved sigh, both of their drivers out of harm's way. Well from one form of harm.

Mórag quickly resummoned her rapiers and they burst into flames. She swept her blades low and creating a wave of flames close to the ground. Rex instinctively rolled to the side to get out of harm's way, however Ash used his aura enhanced strength to leap over the wave since it was quite short. That was mistake. The inquisitor quickly rushed forward and thrusted her left rapier forward towards him. The teen was forced to block with his axe, obviously having no way to maneuver in midair, which caused him to be sent flying into a wall and slamming his back painfully into it.

Zenobia and Nim noticed their master get slammed into a wall, quickly disengaged in fighting the powerful duo to check up on him. " **Ash are you alright?!** " the fox blade quickly getting onto her knees beside him, oh how she wished she could heal outside of battles. She needed to build ether as she fights to unleash her healing arts, limiting her capacity to heal wounds.

Ash simply nodded his head at her, he was caught off guard by Mórag's maneuver so slammed his back into the wall without cushioning himself with aura. "I'll live and fight," he reassured her as he got back onto his feet, his aura soothing his back pain, he'll definitely be sore tomorrow. "what's the situation? We winning?" he asked his blades but had a general idea of that statement.

" **Gah!!!** " Ash heard from his right, seeing Rex get sent flying ten meters in front of him. The teen got up but the raven haired teen notice the salvager had noticeable cuts on his body, the most prominent being a large gash on his exposed arm. The wound wasn't bleeding too much he noted, it seemed Mórag's heated rapiers cauterized the wound somewhat, limiting the bleeding. Still the injury obviously hurt. Unfortunately, the rest of the battle wasn't going well for his other allies.

Nia slide to a stop right in front Ash, her breathing laboured and her posture was hunched over. She wasn't hurt, at least not noticeably, but obviously the fighting was taking it's toll on her body. "Dam it all… she's a hard nut to crack…" the gormotti complained as gathered her breath, she wasn't as quick as Jin nor as strong as Malos but she's a good mix of both. Making her quite the nuisance.

Ash nodded at her words before refocusing on Mórag, who was currently launching a flurry of strikes at Tora who was successfully blocking them, mostly due to the large girth of his shield. At least he was keeping his eyes on her, seemed he was learning from his past experience. _Gotta be some way to get past her guard. I just need to think!_ He thought to himself, studying her movements to find an opening to exploit or trying learn of a way to make one. He was a trainer, tactics and figuring out his opponents was half his life, though it was still a quite a short one. He just needed to step back and figure something out, he always found a way unless he was against impossible odds.

" **Burning sword!!!** " Ash heard Rex and Pyra shout out from his side, it seemed they were going big or go home. He saw the powerful wave of flame rush towards Mórag, who was distracted by Tora who began fighting back against her. It looked like she was too occupied to react but she threw her right rapier in the air, which was caught swiftly by Brighid. The blade raised her weapon and simply pointed at the incoming attack, what was that supposed to do against that? At his surprise, the attack seemingly split into smaller streams and spread away from the point, removing Brighid and Mórag from harm's way. Tora on the other hand was forced to block the attack which exposed him to fierce kick to his ribs courtesy of the inquisitor, sending the poor nopon flying. Luckily for him, Poppi caught him in her arms before he had a violent crash landing.

The other streams went wild and hit random things like the floor and a few crates, melting them with ease at the temperature. " **She blocked that?!** " Rex shouted in disbelief, that was the strongest move in his arsenal and yet she blocked it like it was nothing, these two were really super powerful. In his frustration he rushed forward, despite the protest of Pyra due to his injuries, he wasn't going to be stopped here. Not before he reached Elysia with Pyra!

Ash shook his head, not helping this battle was the poor coordination between them. The four of them were fighting like four individuals than a team, reminded him of when he and Paul were forced to work together, they only came out on top because of their individual strength not by actually being able to work together. Sadly that won't happen here, he didn't have his powerful pokémon with him, would be interesting seeing a blade and pokémon duke it out however.

 _No point in lamenting about not having pokémon now, I need to figure out a way to get us out of here._ Ash thought biting his bottom lip, he was pretty sure winning this fight was out of the picture. They were outmatched and lacked the teamwork to use their number advantage, it's best to retreat for now. A bitter taste in his mouth for sure. He'd much rather fight than runaway but the consequences were too high to risk losing, he couldn't get back to his family and friends if he's rotting in a cell.

 _How to create an opening to break for it…_ Ash knew Mórag wouldn't simply let them run off like it was nothing, he needed to somehow disable or distract her long enough for him and everyone else to get away. He racked his mind to figure something out, what did he know about these two that he can take advantage of? Brighid was weak to water, if he could get her wet or force her into a watery environment that would do. _Nia's blade is water though…_ Nia had been attempting to use her water arts, even now Dromarch was attempting to use his wild roar but was denied by a whip slash knocking the chakrams out of place. It was going to be easy to force that situation…

 _Think Ash! Their must be someway to make an opening to runaway!_ Ash closed his eyes tightly as he tried to remember anything he could use against them, anything! _Wait… when I fought Rex and Nia…_ he replayed that battle in his mind repeatedly and something didn't feel right, something went unexplained in that fight…

 _ **No! I won't accept this, we're stronger than this!!!** Ash thought teeth clenched, he wasn't going to accept this, not after all the training will he go down without a fight. His aura flared up around him, unnoticed by all due to the mist and Zenobia focusing on the barrier. Unknown to him, his aura was synthing into his axe and into the stream of ether, turning it a bright blue, connected to Zenobia's core crystal._

Ash opened his eyes in a sudden realization, what happened back then finally made sense, the change of the barriers colour and his aura lose finally made sense. Well somewhat. _I can give my blades my aura to make them stronger… that's our ticket!_ He thought with a smile at what he learned, if Zenobia could make such a powerful barrier that could survive that abuse... Imagine what she could do with an attack!

"I got a plan. I can't explain it but you need to trust me on this, it might be our only shot," Ash finally spoke up catching his two blades off guard, he was so quiet and had such a look of concentration like they never saw before.

"A plan uh? Well your on the fly plans haven't failed us yet," Zenobia craning her neck to the side, every plan he made since they meet gave them a tactical advantage to some degree.

"Of course I trust you! What can I do to help with it?" Nim asked enthusiastically, knowing her driver had a plan renewed her confidence in this desperate scenario. Seeing her driver and friends get knocked around had really demoralized her, their chances seemingly slipping away by the second.

Ash leaned into Zenobia's ear, whispering what he had planned and the blade listened intently. Her face shifted from interest to disdain once he finished, obviously not fond of what he had planned but begrudgingly nodded her head. "I can do that sure but I won't have the power to do something of that scale," she spoke up, she never doubted her abilities or strength but what he wanted was a tall order even by her standards. Impossible more like.

Ash grinned at her and bump her shoulder with fist, trying to reassure her. "Power won't be an issue, trust me. So long as you can pull off that technique than nothing else matters," He explained getting back onto his feet before staring down at Nim. "I need you to make sure the other's are near the exit, we need to be quick." he gave the order to his canine blade, who quickly nodded at his request and got up soon after. With his team knowing their positions, he made his way forward towards Mórag, who knocked Rex over causing him to land right at Ash's feet. He was quite battered with cuts across his exposed limbs and parts of his outfit torn, it seemed his rush backfired on him.

Ash helped his fellow teen back to his feet, Pyra rushing over to help hold him up from the opposite side. "I need you two to use that burning sword attack of yours on my mark," He told the two of them, the two looking quite surprised at him taking command but simply nodded their heads, they didn't have many options left. Getting their confirmation, Ash strode up to Mórag until only five yards separated them. "I'll be ending this battle now Mórag. With one last attack," he told her confidently holding up his axe, Zenobia standing beside him with somewhat soured face.

Mórag and Brighid turned their head to look at them, a delicate eyebrow of Brighid raised in intrigue while her driver kept her poker face in place. "Is that so? Pardon my rudeness if I don't believe such a claim," she told him seriously, was this boy so arrogant that he could defeat her after her display? All their attempts to best her proved fruitless yet he was confident he could best her in a single attack. Was he that foolhardy or was there something more at play she didn't realize?

Ash simply grinned at her statement and pointed his axe at his opponent, slowly building up the aura inside him as small cloak of it started to surround him. "I don't need you to believe, I just need you to take this attack," he told her seriously, his blue aura overflowing and pulsating around him, it was almost like he was surrounded by blue flames. The cloak enveloped his axe and entered the yellow stream connecting the weapon to Zenobia, the stream turning yellow to a light blue.

 _This feeling! This power!_ Zenobia face morphed from upset to astonished, this was the power she felt when she fought Pyra, the overwhelming warmth and power that she felt and yearned for since first feeling it. _It came from you Ash? Been holding out on me eh?_ She thought as she started to glow green and a powerful wind picked up, streams of wind were pulled towards her and cycled around like she was cyclone. She could get used to this power, she felt like with him at her side, she felt like there was no limits to what she could do!

Pyra raised a hand to protect her eyes from derby kicked up by powerful winds Zenobia was kicking up. " **How are they doin' that?!** " Rex shouted stabbing his sword into the metal floor, not confident that he wouldn't be blown off his feet by the powerful gusts of wind. The teen was confused at what was happening, how was Ash glowing blue and what was surrounding him? How is Zenobia so strong all of sudden? More questions were piling on about his new friend and he'd really like answers to this.

"I don't know! I've never seen anything like this!" Pyra answered, equally as bewildered as her driver about this bizarre phenomenon, she's never seen or heard about what was going on, even in the memories of Mythra no word of whatever this is. _Mythra! Do you know what's going on?_ The fire blade asked her other self, she was far better at analyzing information, so was better equipped to figure this out.

 _Whatever coming out of him is entering the tether connecting him and Zenobia, entering her core crystal. It's some kind of energy like ether but more potent. Her energy production has increased drastically, doubl- No! Triple what she was pumping out a moment ago._ Mythra said sounding somewhat surprised, she wasn't easily surprised or impressed but this was definitely interesting. _I'd put her roughly around you, maybe a little less. Still doesn't hold much of a candle to me though._ Pyra had to shake her head at that, her counterpart always had ego and it hadn't died down even five centuries later.

" **What in the blazes?!?!** " Mórag shouted out as she was pushed back a few feet by powerful wind, her inquisitor hat flying off her head. She didn't know what he was planning, or whatever it was he was currently doing, but she wasn't about to stand idle while he attacked. The blades extended into their whip form and ignited in flames, she pushed forward resisting the powerful winds forcing her away. "Azure Striker, form the second, Radin-!" she tried to unleash her attack: attempting to end whatever he had in mind before he could commit, but was interrupted.

" **Wild Roar Dromarch!** " Nia yelled out to her blade, having position herself on Mórag's right flank. The tiger blade let out a powerful roar at her, causing Brighid to rush beside her driver, throwint up a barrier at the last moment but Dromarch's element gave him an advantage over his enemy, shattering the barrier. Though the barrier minimized damage to the inquisitor, it threw the duo off ending any attack they had going.

" **Nia! Get out of here! Rex! Now!** " Ash yelled out, wanting the two to hear him over the powerful wind, streams of it surrounding the axe head which nearly resembled a mini hurricane. " **Zenobia let's do it!** " he shouted spinning his all body around, once, twice… the third time he dug his heel into the metal floor and swung his axe in Mórag's direction, what occured next was insane. A hurricane formed out of the swing, the large twister moving towards the inquisitor.

Rex was shocked by the attack, he hadn't seen anything like this before in his life. He shook his head, getting over his shock at the moment, he had a job to do. " **Pyra!** He shouted to the aegis raising up the sword and pointing it upwards, awaiting his blade to join him. Pyra rushed to his side and grasp the sword, her energy entering the blade causing its flame brighter than ever. " **Flaming sword!!!** " the two shouted unison, bringing the blade down mere moments, launching a large torrent of flame towards the twister.

When the two attacks meet, the flames wrapped around the twister and feed on it, creating a giant vortex of flames burned bright white. An odd combination attack but certainly effective, the floor underneath the hurricane melted away into molten metal at the intense heat. All that heat and power was heading towards Mórag.

" **Ugh, I can't counter that!** " Mórag shouted in frustration, backing away from the attack, she couldn't use any of her arts or specials on the flaming twister. Her flames would simply be assimilated into the massive torrent of flames, not helping her cause any bit.

" **Lady Mórag!!!** " Brighid shouted, running towards her master, getting between her and the attack, throwing up a barrier around the both of them to hopefully protect them from the attack. The inferno engulfed the two, surrounding them on all sides in flames, trapping them in place. "I believe the barrier will hold, it seems the heat has died down," the blade commented, noting how the intense flames have seem to fluctuate between bright white and more cooler red. Odd.

Mórag looked down at the floor at her partner's words, the attack was weakening already? How unless… The inquisitor sighed and sheathed her blades, the action earning a raised eyebrow from her blade. "He never intended to defeat us, this attack was merely to contain us for a time," she explained to her blade, the answer causing the blade's eyebrows to shot up. The flames disappeared entirely a few moments later, clearing up their vision, allowing them observe the battlefield.

They were gone. The Aegis, the traitor, every one of them. The bags they dropped during the start of the battle were also gone, it was obvious what had happened while the duo was too focused on the attack in front of them. "I feel slighted… that attack could have been deadly if they wanted it to be…" Mórag said in mildly agitated, she was the special inquisitor, not a novice driver that needed punches pulled. The inquisitor looked up and noticed something, something shining in the pale moonlight. It was her hat, slowly floating back to earth after getting caught in the attack, charred and burnt from the heat with the metal section looking partially melted.

"What should we do? Pursue them?" Brighid asked her driver, the trail of the group would still be fresh, they could still find them and capture the Aegis.

Mórag ignored the question for the time, walking towards her damaged hat, a symbol of her position, and picked it up, simply staring down at it. "No… that won't be necessary. I believe it's best to let them go for now, I'm curious what they'll do on their own. The Aegis isn't a threat in their hands," she explained to her blade, who looked her in mild surprise at her words. The inquisitor tossed the hat away, she'll get a new one once she returns back to Mor Ardian. "Besides, we'll be busy rooting out corruption back home, Dughall and his allies pose an internal threat that we shouldn't allow to fester," the near future will be very busy for the two of them, tonight wasn't a complete lose at least.

 **-A few miles away-**

The group finally stopped running when they reached a massive tree, far away from the city of Torigoth, taking a breather under the protection of the tree's equally massive roots. "I-I haven't ran so fast in me life…" Rex breathed out, placing a hand on the root as he took deep breaths, his lungs were on fire. The teen leaned his head to the side, catching a glance of Nia dismounting Dromarch. "Must be nice.. having your blade carry you everywhere…" the teen said to the Gormotti, said person merely sticking her tongue out the boy, a smirk on her face. The boy placed his back on the root and gently slide down it, sitting on the floor and resting his back on the root, he needed a break.

"Tora exhausted…" the nopon mumbled stopping beside Rex, collapsing face first into the grass. "Nopons not built for long distance running…" the inventor said, rolling onto his back with a huff of effort, closing his eyes as he got comfortable. He needed a nap.

Nia just looked at the two boys and simply shook her head at them, these two needed to toughen up if they wanted to be proper drivers. She noticed something off though. "Where's Ash?" she asked out loud, everyone else was present but him. For that matter, his blades weren't here either.

Before anyone could answer her inquiry, the sound of snoring caught everyone's attention. Zenobia and Nim finally came into view of everyone, coming from behind a hill. On the back of the former, a sleeping raven haired trainer could be found, a trail of saliva coming out of his mouth as snoozed peacefully. "He just collapsed and fell asleep halfway during the trip. Had to carry him, guy is out like a light," the wind blade explained reaching the group, Nim carefully taking her driver off the other blades back and gently laying him down, placing his head on her lap. The fox blade smiled down at her driver and brushed away the saliva on his face with her paw-hand, the furry appendage tickling him slightly making his face scrunch up.

"Seems like he's dead tired… unsurprising given everything he did tonight, he earned a nice rest…" Nia said walking up to Nim, kneeling beside her as she looked down at him, placing a gloved hand on his snoring face. She smiled down at him, he looked so innocent and childlike in his sleep, like nothing was wrong in the world. Her thumb traced the thunderbolt scars on his cheeks, one of more distinguishing features, second only to his ridiculous hair. Reminded her of those palm tree found on the Letherian Archipelago, fitting honestly, he's as thick headed as a coconut.

"Did you see any soldiers trying to follow us?" Nia asked, her eyes focusing on Zenobia, they were the furthest back so they would have seen anything. The wind blade merely shook her at the question, stretching her arms before curling up into a ball, joining her driver in the lands of dreams. The Gormotti let out a sigh of relief, well at least they had a respite for now, they all needed some rest. "Best deal with everyone's injuries, seems like I'll be busy for the next little while…" the feline woman moaned out, all she wanted at this point was to lay on Dromarch and get some much needed beauty sleep. She couldn't however, her friends needed healing, particularly Rex, who suffered the worst out of all of them.

Ash snored softly, smiling to himself, dreaming about beating every regions champion consecutively. All his friends and family were in the stand cheering him on, even all the pokemon he caught over the years. Even… Zenobia and Nim?

Ash woke up with a start as he felt something bang into his leg. He raised his hands to his eyes, rubbing them to help wake him up and clear up his blurry vision, but something was wrong. Was the floor… swaying back and forth? The teen slowly rose to his feet, grasping a railing with his right hand to steady himself, but flinched slightly, placing his free hand on his back. There's the back pain he knew he'd be having.

Ash looked over the railing, seeing an endless sea of clouds and the Gormott titan getting smaller. "I'm on a boat?" the teen asked confused, the last thing he remembered was face planting into the grass and than darkness. How'd he get here?

"Ah your awake!" Nim said happily, walking up to him, Kit and Sunny looking around curiously, squeaking softly as they duo took everything in. Noting her driver was in pain, she slipped forward and gently helped him, placing her left hand on his back. "Your hurt! Nia got some cream that will help you! She really knows her stuff!" Nim exclaimed with a soft smile, maybe she could teach her some of her stuff, helping Ash when he was in pain.

Ash simply nodded, a pained smile on his face, anything to ease his back pain is a good thing. "By the way Nim… where is this bo- Titan ship going?" he corrected himself, he nearly forgot certain terminology didn't exist in Alrest, boats were replaced with Titan ships. He sometimes forgets where he is at times, he adapts to situations a bit too well.

Nim simply smiled at his question, guiding him to Nia, who was currently occupying herself by talking with Pyra at the front of the ship, Rex was on the wheel close by, and Zenobia sat crossed leg at the very end of the ship, floating off the ship and simply stared into the endless cloud sea. Instead of vocalizing the answer, she simply pointed in front of him.

Following the finger, it was in the same direction as the world tree in the distance, even from this distance he was surprisingly in view. "The World Tree…" he said surprised, well he was curious about the place anyway.

 **-Chapter ends-**

 **The Heroes were able to come out on top over the flamebringer but this merely the beginning of this story.**

 **So yeah I just skipped the whole getting the airship quests, it's mostly just fetch quests and nothing substantial happens during it, so I had him sleep through it.**

 **See you guys next chapter.**

 **Author's Note: People who are commenting about a deleted chapter, i know. I originally posted the chapter but found the ending unsatisfactory, so i deleted and spent a day remaking it. Please don't comment about it anymore, thank you.**


	8. Into The Belly of Uraya

**Xenoblade Chronicles belongs to Monolith Studios and Pokémon belongs to Gamefreak. I own and profit nothing from this!**

 **-Chapter starts-**

"Nia! Ash's back hurts! You got more of that cream, the one you used on Rex?!" The fox blade asked happily, left arm wrapped around her driver's waist to help him stand, each step causing him to hiss in pain. Kit nipped at her master's hair, pulling out twigs and leaves out of his palm tree shaped hairdo, even grabbing a few bugs out of his hair. The tiny blue haired fox-dragon eating them, a small snack for the ravenous animal. "Ah! Kit is grooming you! He really likes you! Or he's hungry… one or the other," she gushed originally but placed a finger on her chin from her free hand, confused by the intentions of her kitsune friend. Despite coming from a single core crystal, the two foxes acted independently of her.

Ash simply ignored the grooming, Kit wasn't pulling out any hair so it didn't hurt at all, the grooming was justified though. Who knows what found its way into his hair since falling asleep, best let the fox do its things. Though he'd prefer an actual shower, he'd make due with this.

"I do. Made a new batch before we left, had a feeling he'd need it," Nia said knowingly, turning her head to stare at the duo. She'd figured that he'd be injured to some capacity, given everything he's been through since last night. She'd refocus on Pyra and gave her a smile, pulling out a small metal container from her pocket, carefully placing it in the redhead's waiting hands. "Take off the bandages and apply to the wounds, put fresh bandages right afterwards every three to four hours… **ALSO STOP SCRATCHING!!!** " the Gormotti yelled the last part, noticing Rex taking one hand off the steering wheel to scratch his arm, specifically a spot covered by bandages.

Rex gave her a sheepish smile and pulled the appendage away, whistling casually attempting to not look guilty, obviously failing in that attempt. Pyra sighed at him, though a smile did caress her face at his antics. "I'll remember that. Don't worry, I'll keep a close eye on him," the Aegis said with a smile, turning around and heading towards her driver, leaving Nia alone with Ash and his blade.

Nia simply huffed at that, guy could be childish at times, she says don't scratch it but he does it anyway, like a child when they get bitten by a bug. She refocus on Ash and Nim, the former chuckling at reprimanding the teen, while the latter was looking out to the cloud sea. "You said your back is in pain, right?" she asked him, getting a nod of confirmation of the teen in return. Nodding, she walked over to a wooden crate and pushed it towards him, stopping just in front of him. "Take a seat. Put a little less stress on your back," she explained, patting the crate with her left hand.

Nim nodded and gently helped her driver take a seat, holding his back carefully to avoid needless pain. With the teen settled on the crate, Nim got on her knees beside, neatly placing her hands on her knees. "If you don't mind, I'd like to watch and help. I'd like to learn a thing or two from you, Nia," the fox blade said, a determine edge in her voice. The healing blade was quite serious about wanting to learn about medicine, she wanted to soothe the pain of her driver on her own in the future, like a true healer blade should!

Nia simply nodded at her request, she saw no harm in teaching her a few tricks of her trade, having an assistant for once sounds interesting. "Sure. I could use a hand anyway," she told the blade with a shrug of her shoulders, grabbing a metal bucket and placing it behind Ash, bottom up. Taking a seat on the bucket, she grabbed the rim of his shirt, readying to pull it over his shirt. "Ash, lift your arms. Nim, lift his shirt from the front," she ordered, slightly lifting up his shirt.

Ash grabbed his gloves and pulled them off, throwing them down onto the floor before lifting his arms up. Nim grabbed the front of his shirt, her furry paws rubbing against his stomach, making the teen giggle softly. In one swift motion, Nia and Nim stood up, lifting the shirt right off him in one motion, exposing his upper body to them. Both of woman simply stood there, eyeing his body with wide eyes, like they just saw something horrible. "Uh… can I put my arms down? A cold breeze is coming in," Ash complained, shivering slightly has the cold wind washed over him. What's the hold up?

Nia took a seat back on the bucket, her mouth wide. "A-Ash… what in the Architect's name happened to your body…?" she asked quietly, stretching her hand and pressing it against his back.

His body was littered with scars, barely any spot was without a scar, and the sheer variety was staggering. Single gashes, claw marks, stabs, and even bite marks could be seen, including some burn marks and former bruising could be spotted. His body nearly looked like tapestry of bodily harm.

Ash flinched slightly at that question, it was certainly true that his body was pretty -really- messed up, and it was slightly a sensitive issues. "It w-was from fighting some monsters! I wasn't a driver than and I'm pretty reckless, not to mention overly determined! Hehe…" he let out an awkward, and unconvincing, laugh. The teen usually would never lie, to the point most would consider him extremely blunt, but this was definitely not a good time to be honest. He already didn't want to talk about his injuries, being a somewhat sensitive issue for him, but they'd think he was crazy with his explanation. _Yeah I come from a world where I capture powerful monsters and train them to do battle, these injuries are related to that._ Yeah… they wouldn't think he was nuts from that. Except maybe Nim, she was too sweet to think negatively of him.

Nim simply nodded in understanding, not questioning what he was saying, it made sense to her.

Nia, on the other hand, didn't buy into his story at all, he was a horrible liar and it wasn't hard to find the nervousness in his voice. "If you say so… just be more careful," she told him, grabbing a small metal container from her belt, the metal tube containing the ointment. She wasn't going to pry his secret out of him, she was the last person that deserved the right to, given she had her fair share of secrets she wasn't willing to share. Before opening the container, she gently pulled off the glove on her right hand. With her hand now bare, she popped open the lid of the tin and scooped up a glob of paste between her middle and ring finger. "I'm gonna start poking at you, let me know when you feel pain. I don't have enough to cover your entire back," she warned him, softly poking with her remaining gloved hand his lower back, watching carefully his reactions.

Ash let out relieved sigh, releasing a breath he didn't even know he was holding, seems he was in the clear. For now. "So… why are you guys headed to the World Tree? I'm just curious about it honestly, not like I have anywhere else to go now," he told her truthfully, deactivating his aura so he could properly react to her probing, it was going to hurt but he needed to be properly treated. Do to last night stunt, no way was he allowed back in the army, it seemed he was stuck with this band for now. At least, until he found some lead to getting back home, there must be some way back in this vast world.

"To reach Elysium… _if it exists…_ " The second part was a lot quieter, barely over a whisper, Ash nearly didn't catch what she said. Rex was sure that it existed, but herself still held doubts about it.

Ash turned his head slightly to look at her, a eyebrow raised at what she said, he never heard of this 'Elysium' place before. Even while in the army. "I never heard of it. What's so special about the place?" he asked, curious. Nim shared his curiosity, walking around him to look at Nia, her eyes lit up with curiosity, a contrast to Kit and Sunny, who seemed disinterested with everything going on.

Nia was slightly surprised by that, the tale of Elysium was widespread, it was like every mother in the Alrest told their child about it. Him not knowing about it was off to her. "At the very top of the world tree, lies Elysium. A paradise of endless green, food, water, and living space a plenty, enough for all. Well, that's what I've been told. Nobody has ever been, more children's tale mothers tell their kids. Pyra says she's from there and Rex promised to bring her there, I'm not really convinced though," she explained, telling of her doubts about the claim, it just seemed too good to be true. A paradise where everyone could live in peace, a place where everyone is accepted, even someone like her… It was merely hard to believe.

Ash listened to her explanation, it was obvious that she doubted it existed, but he could understand the appeal of such a place. The titans were limited in living space and how much they could provide for a people, heck, his home would appear like Elysium to the people of Alrest. "Maybe it doesn't exist, but it could. Isn't that worth at least knowing? At the very least, it will be a great adventure finding that answer. 'Life is a journey, not a destination' has they say," Ash told her, flashing her one of his patented optimistic smiles. The teen always lived his life in the moment, the past couldn't be changed, just learned from, and the future is unknown, so why worry about it?

Nia looked into his eyes and smiled, a small chuckle breaking from her lips looking at the big silly smile on his face. "I guess that's one way of looking at it. Some wise words, coming from such a stubborn child. Your full of surprises ain'tcha?" she joked, but he had a good point. She should stop worrying if Elysium does or doesn't exist, she should enjoy what she has now. "Thanks again, I owe you a lot..." she said, averting her eyes to look at floor, her voice more solemn.

Ash was surprised at the shift in her tone, did he say something wrong? "Hey! Don't worry about it! Your a friend, friends help each other, right?" he said with a shake of his head, was she still beating herself up about needing to be rescued? Everyone has a low point in their life, when they need someone else to pull them out.

"We weren't friends… You were just some stranger that barely knew me, not only freeing me and fighting on my behalf, but hurting yourself in the process and losing everything… I just… don't think I deserve it…" Nia said closing her eyes, feeling shame for everything she put him through, he lost his job, his friends in the army, and scarring his already damaged body for her. He lost everything for her and she believed she wasn't worth it…

She felt somebody place a hand on her shoulder, making her open her eyes and look up, staring at Ash's chest. "Didn't I already tell you? You gotta a good heart in you, we're the same in that regard. Didn't you help save those salvagers and Rex from Torna, despite the fact you turned against your friends? We're in the same boat than, two traitors that are two good hearted for their own good. At least we have each other, right?" he clenched her shoulder softly has he finished, the two both lost a lot for what they thought was right. "Your right, we're both strangers to each other but… I want to be your friend, so please stop dwelling on the past."

Nia raised her gloved hand to her eye, brushing a lone tear from her eye, surprised she was even crying at all. "Y-Yeah. I'd like that," she told him, a toothy smile crossing her lips. He was right, no point in dwelling on past mistakes, she should focus on the now. With him. "Enough feeling sorry for myself. I need to treat you, you reckless idiot. I gotta feeling this gonna be a daily thing for us," she teased him, returning to her old self has she repositioned herself behind him, Nim kneeling beside her.

Ash threw his head back and laughed, well he would have, if the action didn't cause a sharp pain from his back. "Haha… Oh that was a mistake…" he moaned out in pain, well that was unexpected… this might be a long ride.

 **-Six Hours Later-**

Ash would never again complain about boat rides back home. Despite reassurance from Rex that the trip wouldn't be too long, something about Gormott being extremely close to the World Tree during this season, it was still painfully long. The teen was used to luxury cruise liners when traveling by sea, on those he could always find something to do. He could get into a pokemon battle on the deck, take a nap on a soft and comfortable bed, or pig out in the buffet until he nearly burst, than fall asleep for several hours.

The closest thing to a buffet on this little dinghy was a brazier they found in the small cargo hold, with the only thing they could cook was the rations he brought. Not exactly a five star lunch. Pyra tried her best though, bless her sweet soul, she tried. Ash also wasn't exactly in a mood to nap either, turned out when he woke up, it was noon. Meaning he slept for nearly ten hours. Luckily, Ash always found ways to keep himself entertained.

" **Mole Tremor!!!** " Ash yelled, his claw weapon glowing a dark brown before slamming it down on the floor, causing the floor in front of him to vibrate. Tora was in front of him, and felt the full full force of the shock wave, causing the nopon to lose his balance, waving his shield around wildly. " **Kitsune's Fury Dance!!!** " the teen yelled, rushing the now off balance opponent, unleashing a flurry of swiping attacks, using the serrated claws of the weapon to their fullest.

Tora attempted his best to block the attack but the earlier maneuver had thrown him off, opening up his guard. Ash caught his right claws on the top of the shield, allowing to pull the shield away to expose the startled nopon before throwing a punch straight for the nopon's face. Before the blow could make contact, the weapon disappeared and his fist stopped just short of his cheek. "Welp, I think that's my fifth win in a row. Not a bad performance Tora, your guard as gotten better," Ash congratulated, his clenched fist opening up, offering him a handshake, which the nopon gladly took eagerly with his right ear hand.

"True but you can't win a fight without throwing a punch Tora. You could have countered Ash's shield grab by using that weird saw attack of your shield, opening him up to a counter," Nia advised from her position, sitting on the floor with her back against Dromarch, who laid down beside her, being her cushion of sorts. She was acting as their advisor or teacher of sorts, watching them spar and giving them advice, she was the most experienced driver in the entire group after all. "By the way Ash, what was that 'Mole Tremor' move suppose to do? Break or topple?" she asked eyebrow raised, she could exactly tell the intent of that move, it was kinda all over the place to her.

Ash looked at her confused, a question had been burying itself in his mind for awhile now since he used his first driver art. "What are those, anyway? Break, topple, launch, and crush, how do they work?" he knew what those word meant normally, but didn't in the context of a driver, which obviously meant something else. He asked Zenobia about it but she simply said it didn't matter, unless he was fighting with other drivers, kinda like Blade combos. He got a rude awakening to that concept when he fought Nia and Rex.

Nia simply nodded at his inquiry, she knew that he was a recent driver so his lack of knowledge wasn't surprising, even Tora was trying to discreetly listen in. Keyword 'discreetly'. The raising of his large ears made it obvious he was trying to listen in. "'Break' their guard, 'Topple' them onto the floor, 'Launch' them into the air, and finally, 'Smash' their arses back down." Nia told him a big grin on her face, that saying was how she reminded herself of driver combos. Dromarch simply gave her a deadpan looked before sighing, his lady could be needlessly vulgar at times.

"That's the gist of it. Certain moves can cause these effects. Using my chakrams, I have a break attack. I can use it to break the guard of an enemy, if you follow it up with topple, they'll be forced onto the ground, immobilized. Launch does the same while their on the ground and Smash moves are the big finish of the combo." she explained in more detail, noticing Ash and Tora looking at each other in confusion, obvious the two idiots didn't get sayings. Obviously too clever for the two dunderheads.

"I get!" Tora said waving his arms in joy, it all make sense now! But, his ears quickly dropped and he let out a sigh. "But Tora only have Poppi! Can't combo with just one blade!" the Nopon said in despair, he couldn't do an awesome driver combo with just Poppi alone. This only amplifying the fact he wasn't a true a driver.

"Poppi not satisfactory for masterpon..?" The robot asked, a faint sadness in her voice, though it was hard to tell do to the limited emotional range she could vocalize.

"No-No! Poppi amazing! Just impossible to combo with just Poppi!" Tora quickly explained to his blade, he wasn't implying that she wasn't good, if anything, he was an unsatisfactory driver!

"I guess my attack would be a launch art than, I think? The attack is suppose to uproot the ground beneath them, sending them flying. I just didn't go full power with it, I didn't want to mess the ship up, especially since it's not ours," Ash explained, arm cross has he looked towards Nim, who looked back at him with a smile, glad she was getting to practice more with him.

"Appreciated much!" Tora said relieved, focusing on Ash, Poppi looking quite pleased at his apology. Unclepon Umon would most certainly make him pay for any damages, especially since he told him this boat ride is meant to just be a joyride. Tora might have lied to his unclepon about his money situation, telling him he was a wanted fugitive definitely not smart, but it wasn't a total lie. Most money he made, doing odd jobs around Torigoth like fixing appliances and other mechanical related jobs, went to building Poppi, minus food and other basic needs. So he wasn't exactly swimming in gold, not even enough to fill a small puddle.

Nia merely nodded her head in understanding, well he was certainly creative with his techniques, making full use of their elemental properties. "Sounds about right, can't wait to see it at full power than," she smiled at him, impressed with his growth as a driver, especially in quite short amount of time he has been one. "You got a knack for making up driver arts, like you got some blueprints in your noggin or some such to base them off," she commented, rubbing her chin curiously.

"Hehe, I admit. I'm kinda basing them off monsters and animals and how they attack, it's a lot easier when you got something to work off!" Ash exclaimed with a goofy smile on his face, though internally he flinched at telling another lie. He wasn't totally lying, he based his moves off of pokémon moves, 'Mole Tremor' being based off earthquake, which could be considered monsters to the people of Alrest. It just his stomach got tight with each lie, hopefully he could keep track of all of them, he didn't want to get buried alive by them.

Unlike earlier, Nia didn't pick up on the lie and merely nodded in agreement. "That's smart," she complimented him, getting up off of Dromarch and stretching her arms up high, purring contently. "Well, I think our training sessions should be on hold for now…" she turned her head to the side, staring at the massive tree which was quite close now. "I think we've arrived at our destination," she commented, slightly in awe at the sight, she's seen the thing countless times but never this close up.

Ash's head snapped to look at where Nia was looking, he was so absorbed of training, that he forgot about their destination. The teen ran towards the edge of the ship and grabbed the railing, quacking at the massive tree. "Man this thing is huge!" he exclaimed, amazed at the impossibly large plant life, its branches were probably larger than the Tree of Life on his world. "But… how are we gonna get there?" he asked, looking over the railing.

Surrounding the giant tree, was a massive drop, like a moat that surrounded castles long ago. The cloud sea seemed to just suddenly drop, a strong vacuum pulling it in, luckily the ship was just out of reach from that force. He wasn't sure what would happen if they fell in, and he'd rather not know.

"I'll jump us over there," Zenobia said simply, standing beside him, startling him slightly, he didn't see her at all. The platinum blonde placed her right foot on the railing and looked ready to leap across, but was stopped when a pair of arms wrapped around her waist and pulled her away from the railing.

"Let's explore more safe options before resorting to that, alright? No need risking yourself when we have other ways, right?" Ash said with a nervous chuckle, his arms wrapped securely around her waist, in case she tried it anyway. He knew she was a great jumper but it wasn't worth risking her falling into that abyss. Losing her was not an option, she was a friend and no way would he lose her over a needless risk. His grip tightened slightly, hugging her back closely, his face buried in her exposed back.

A blush broke on Zenobia's face at his actions, feeling him hold onto her and the warmth radiating off his body made her feel odd, but not a bad kind of odd. Usually, she hated when somebody tried to hold her back but she could tell, he was genuinely concerned for her and not simply trying to chastise her for a reckless decision. "S-Sure, I guess. Just… let go…" her voice was surprisingly subdued when she spoke, her voice soft and tender compared to her usually loud and boisterous self. Despite her request, she made no action to remove him from her, she simply closed her eyes and took a few calming breaths.

Ash let out a relieved sigh, his breath brushing against Zenobia's skin, not helping with how she was feeling at the moment, before letting go and looking up at the tree. Most people ignored the interaction between them, more focused on the tree and the massive trench surrounding it, except three people.

Nim looked at the duo, seeing how Ash held onto her fellow blade and how close they were, she felt something odd in her stomach. She raised her right hand and rubbed her exposed belly, was she hungry? No. It wasn't that. The feeling disappeared once Ash detached himself from her, was she… relieved? "Do I… want that too?" she whispered to herself, strangely yearning for her driver's touch, to hold her like he did Zenobia. It would be nice if he did… She was so confused in her thoughts, she didn't notice a shadow moving underneath the cloud sea to her right. Even ignoring the alarmed whines of Kit and Sunny, who were increasingly becoming distraught at something.

Nia, standing only a few feet away from Nim, watched the sight but simply looked away not focusing on it. She didn't care. He was just restraining Zenobia from doing something stupid, simple obviously, not like she cared honestly if there was more to it. "You seem bothered by something my lady. Is something the matter?" Dromarch's voice broke her concentration, his eyes held concern for her and minor confusion, not knowing what she was thinking. The Gormotti simply shook her head, no point worrying him about something as ridiculous as this.

The third individual was Pyra but unlike the other two, she wasn't focused on scene between Ash and Zenobia, in fact she was staring off into space with a look of concentration. "We need to get out of here," she suddenly spoke, catching Rex off guard who was standing beside her, manning the steering wheel.

"What? But we just got here," Rex asked confused, they only got here a few minutes ago but now she wanted them to turn back already?

"Now Rex!" She yelled in concern, catching everyone's attention at the point, forgetting their earlier concerns.

Suddenly, the could see exploded right in front of them, mist and water pushed upwards by some unknown force. Something seemingly rose out of the could see, none could make out what it was, the clouds clinging onto it and shrouding its appearance. But everyone could tell it was massive, easily dwarfing the titan ship they were on.

"Rex… I think you better do what she says," Nia told the salvager, her eyes not leaving the shrouded figure. She didn't know what it was but she definitely didn't want to stick around to find out.

Rex nodded slightly at her request, slowly turning the steering wheel, hoping to make as little sound as possible. The ship was only able to turn to the side before chaos ensued.

A loud screech penetrated the deathly silence, Nim and Dromarch forced to cover their ears due to their sensitive hearing. The shroud of clouds disappeared off the creature, revealing it to not even be a creature but a massive serpentine machine, a large glowing blue lens surrounded by a cone shaped cage split in half making up its head. If you can call it a head. The creature let out another deafening screech before slamming its massive head into the cloud sea, right in front of them, nearly crushing them in the process.

"Grab something!" Rex yelled out to everyone, pulling a lever on the floor and pulling it, locking the steering wheel in place, making sure it wouldn't spin. The salvager tightened his grip on the wheel and braced himself.

Everyone quickly grabbed onto whatever they could around them, Nia, Nim, Poppi, and Dromarch all grabbed onto the railing, the tiger blade wrapping his jaw on it. Tora wrapped his arm around Poppi's waist with his regular arms and ears tightly, closing his eyes shut. Pyra grabbed the steering wheel along with Rex, pressing herself quite close to the teen, making him blush. Luckily for him, everyone was more concerned about the disaster about to hit them.

However, Zenobia and Ash were in the middle of the deck, nothing to grab onto except barrels and crates. The blade slammed her left fist into the wooden flooring, making a fist size hole into the floor, much to Tora's dismay, opening his eyes when he heard the noise, seeing her fist through his uncle's Titan ship floor. The blade grabbed a piece the metal frame just under the flooring and offered her free hand to her driver, telling him to grab on.

Before Ash could grab her hand, the Titan ship was sent flying into the air by the force of the giant machine's attack. The teen was sent flying into the air, his aura now useless without any solid ground below him, and he stretched out his hand to Zenobia's, desperately trying to grab on. The tip of his fingers just brushing against her's, the feeling of her glove's fabric filling him with hope. Sadly, it would be dashed.

Before he could grab hold, he was pulled away from her by the sudden vacuum of air created by the attack and was now headed towards the end of the ship. " **Ash!!!** " Zenobia cried out, seeing her driver fly away from her, her hand grasping the ship's frame tightening, the metal groaning under her grip. She was about ready to let go and fly off towards him, no way was she going to let him fall off into the cloud sea, she won't let that thing take him!

Ash was disoriented, he didn't know what was up or down, he simply felt weightless. **_I need to grab something!!!_** The teen thought desperately, going overboard and getting eaten by whatever that thing is certainly wasn't how he was going to die, not before he went home and achieved his dreams! He stretched out both his hands, trying to find something - **anything!** \- to grab onto to stop himself. While all seemed lost, his hands brushed up against something and he quickly latched on, his momentum finally stopping.

Finally, the ship landed back onto the cloud sea, skipping slightly before it finally settled. Ash felt his body start to fall but stopped, he was overboard but still hanging on thankfully. Letting out a breath he didn't even know he was holding, but something felt off, his hands felt like they were were holding onto something… fuzzy? He looked up and noticed Nim's smiling face than looked down, noticing he was holding her hand. "You caught me?" the teen asked, but he noticed something, he was face to face with the titan and Nim was overboard as well, hanging onto the railing from the outside of the boat.

"Of course! I had to let go of the railing to get to you but it was worth it, your safe!" Nim shouted happily, her legs swinging back and forth in happiness, just glad he was safe.

 _Subjectively_. Ash thought said, swinging his feet back and forth helplessly, unable to pull himself onto the boat. "Good work Nim! Can you pull me up? I don't think our friend ain't done with us just yet!" the teen shouted, noticing a massive shadow moving towards the boat under the clouds, he didn't want to be hanging on the side when this thing took another shot at them.

Nim opened her mouth to speak but felt something grab her wrist, causing her to look up.

Zenobia looked down at the two, holding on tightly to Nim's wrist. "She can't, but I can!" she shouted, and with one motion pulled them both back onto to the ship, the duo falling on top of the floor with a thud. She took Ash's free hand and pulled the two back onto their feet, a relieved smile on her face when her eyes locked onto her driver's. Her green eyes refocused on the kitsune blade and she sighed. "Thanks furry ears… you did good," she complimented, letting go of her wrist and giving her a breath pat on the head, she owed her for that.

Nim was stunned at her words, Zenobia usually threw snarky comments and veiled insults her way, getting genuine praise was a surprise. A good one. "Thank you," she simply said with a smile, hopefully the wind blade will become more friendly to her from now on.

Ash couldn't help but smile, seeing the two genuine bond together, he just wished it didn't take him possibly getting killed to do it. "Everybody alright?" he called out, looking around to make sure everyone else was in one piece. They weren't out of the fire just yet.

"A little sore but still standing," Nia responded, holding up her fingers to her face and clenching them, hissing slightly in pain. She never held onto something so tightly in all her life. "How about you, Dromarch?" she asked, looking down at her blade.

The tiger blade opened his mouth wide, rolling his lower jaw in its socket. "I'm quite alright, fortunately it ended when it did. Might have dislocated my jaw if not," the blade explained with a bow of his head, it would have been awkward if he ended up literally slacked jawed.

The rest gave confirmation of being okay, it seemed it was only Ash who potentially was in danger. "Rex! Get us out of here!" the raven haired teen yelled, noticing the metal serpent was headed their way, figuring out it didn't finish its job.

Rex simply nodded and quickly unlocked the steering wheel, quickly turning it to turn the titan away from their pursuer.

Pyra looked towards the giant thing, a look of confusion and hurt on her face, it seemed to hurt her personally. "Why are you doing this, Ophion? Why won't you listen to me?" she asked confused, even Mythra's mental commands to him wasn't getting through to the metal serpent. Something wasn't right with him.

"Ophi-who? You know that thing?" Rex asked her, hearing her speaking to herself and was curious about how the two were connected? Definitely an odd pair, more strange is the sheer hostility the metal serpent was showing towards them.

Ash headed towards the back of the ship, away from everyone else, except his blades who followed close behind. He could see the creature getting closer and closer to them, the distance between them and it shrinking by the second. "Let's see if we can't slow this thing down a little," the teen told his blades, a cloak of aura surrounding him, thin tendrils of aura stretching out from his cloak and latching onto their core crystals. "Hit it with your ranged attacks, using everything you got!" he ordered them, he wanted to see if they could actually even damage this thing, no matter what, this thing is an obstacle. Let's see if he can deal with it now rather than later!

"On it!" The duo shouted unison, the feeling of his energy entering them was overwhelming, especially for Nim since she never felt this before.

 _This warmth… this power… I feel like he's apart of me…_ Kitsune blade thought, her master's aura penetrating her to the core and brought her feelings she could barely comprehend. " **Organic Automata!!!** " she shouted, banishing the feelings she felt at the moment, she needed to follow the request of her driver not be overcomed by the heat. Kit and Sunny opened their mouths wide before firing off concentrated beams of pure energy, one blue and the other red.

" **Storm of blades!!!** " Zenobia shouted out, releasing a flurry of slashes in front of her, each one accompanied by a wind blade launching itself forward. Her swings were so quick that it was a blur to anyone that could see, even the blade herself was surprised by the sheer speed she was displaying. _It's not just my energy output, but my physical attributes increase with this energy as well…_ she kept getting surprised by her driver and what he could do, he certainly was full of them.

The flurry of attacks slammed into Ophion, the beams focusing specifically on its head while the wind blades went wild, striking the serpent on every inch of its body while others disappeared into the cloud see. Despite the barrage, Ophion kept on charging through the abuse, not even slowing down for a moment. After five seconds, Ash cut off his supply of aura to his blades, ending their respective attacks and causing the duo to take in deep breaths, the sudden shock from the loss of power from him.

"Not even a scratch," Ash said out loud, noting that not only was Ophion not deterred in anyway, but their wasn't even scoff Mark's on it, like they were beating on it with feathers. _And a quarter of my aura is gone…_ it seemed fueling blade specials with his aura was a huge drain on him, his aura was full earlier but mere five seconds cut it down by a fourth. _Need to be careful with that,_ it was becoming obvious he couldn't simply just spam such attacks, he needed to be tactful with his aura reserves or run out mid-fight.

" **That's Uraya's Titan!** " Somebody yelled from the front, it sounded like gramps to Ash, surprising such a strong voice from such a small body like that. The teen forgets that the tiny fur ball is over five hundred years old. And used to be Rex's house, ironically now riding on the teen.

Ash turned his attention away from Ophion, failing to notice the massive serpent turning around and disappearing underneath the clouds, to look behind him. "That's a big mouth…" he exclaimed mouth agape, seeing the massive maw rising the clouds, and he thought Ophion was a big boy!

"Turn us around! Or to the side! **Anything!!!** " Nia shouted to Rex in the front, they were between a hungry titan and a homicidal mechanical snake thing. They couldn't do much, but certainly something was better nothing at all.

Before Rex could comment, the massive titan inhaled. This usually minor bodily function caused a powerful vacuum, pulling the much smaller titan to the waiting jaws of its larger relative, and with it them. " **I can't pull us out of this vacuum! Brace for impact! This ain't gonna be pretty!** " the salvager warned, locking the steering wheel once more in place, no way could he properly land the titan, or even control it. All they could do is hold on tight!

Everybody quickly scrambled to grab hold of anything nailed to the floor. Luckily for Ash, he had a convenient railing beside him, so hopefully a repeat from moments ago won't happen. The trio of Ash, Nim, and Zenobia grabbed onto the railing. "I'm starting to hate sailing.." the teen mumbled, the two blades simply nodded in agreement, their experiences so far have been quiet sour.

The next few moments were a blur to Ash, the titan ship was sucked into the larger beast, getting slammed around into various rock formation, than getting sent flying and hitting his head on something.

Slowly, the teen opened his eyes, awakened by the feeling of his hand in something wet and the smell of… fish? The teen quickly got up and looked at his right hand, it was sticky and smelled of fish. He looked down where he laid moments ago, quite difficult due to so very little light, and noticed a fish, not one he's seen before though. But, he could say that for everything in Alrest. "Hello?! You guys around?!" he shouted out, rubbing his head with his left hand, flinching back slightly in pain and quickly pulled it back, inspecting it. No blood, just a bruise it seems.

He didn't get a response but he noticed something in the darkness, it was strange glowing lights, a faint shade of blue and they were moving. Towards him! "Hello… is it you guys..?" he asked cautiously, it was too dark to make out the source of the lights but as they neared, he noticed faint lines of light, the same shade of blue.

"Ash? Is that you?" Someone asked, it sounded like Zenobia!

As the two lights neared, they were hit by the dim moonlight revealing his two blades has the source of the blue lights, no worse for wear from what he's seen. "You two scared me to death! I thought you were ghosts or something!" Ash whined to them, the teen absolutely hated ghosts, not the pokemon type, literal ghosts that you couldn't touch or really fight back against. "You've seen anyone else? I got knocked out from the crash and just woke up," he questioned them, hopefully they were close by and didn't leave the area.

Zenobia simply shook her head at his inquiry. "No, just you, though I haven't actually been looking. I could have if furry ears and her rodents over here hadn't been stuffing their faces!" she shouted, pointing an accusatory finger at the trio, Kit and Sunny having fish in their mouths while Nim had a little bit of blood on her lips. Obviously from the raw fish she consumed recently.

Nim gave him an apologetic look, not denying the accusation. "Okay… I may have had a fish or two… maybe a dozen. But can you blame me?! We're surrounded by fish! Their scent is… intoxicating!" she whined out, licking her bloody lips clean while the two kitsune finished up their respective meals, she was practically drooling at all the seafood that surrounded them.

Ash sighed at that, well he couldn't fault her for wanting to eat, though he'd prefer his fish cook or fried. Before he could respond, everything went dark and the ground shook slightly, the only things he could see were the core crystals of his blade. "Great… I think the titan finally closed it's big mouth…" the teen mumbled annoyed, he could barely see anything before, only the faintest amount of moonlight providing him sight, now it was pitch black.

However, things brightened up. Literally. From the corner of his eyes, he saw a sudden light come on. The light was certainly not natural, it moved left and right, pointed up to the roof, like somebody was looking around with a flashlight. "I think somebody is over there. Let's see who," he suggested to them, slowly walking towards the light source, trying his damndest to avoiding tripping on whatever was around be it live fish or a jutting rock.

After a brief jog, Ash and his party was flashed by the source of light when they neared it, temporarily blinding them. " **Pyra?! Is that you?!** " a familiar voice asked, the light deming slightly until finally they could make out the source of the light.

"Oh, Ash?" Rex asked surprised, the teen lookings no worse for wear and surprised to see the trio. "Have you've seen Pyra?" he asked sounding concerned, not even bothering to ask the group if they were alright.

" 'Ash, are you alright? That was a nasty crash we just had!' oh I'm fine, Rex. Thanks for asking," Ash playfully mocked, mimicking Rex's voice for his self conversation, placing a closed hand on his side and raising an eyebrow at him. Nim placed her paws to cover her mouth, hiding a fit of giggles from the mimicry, while Zenobia let out snort at the playful mockery. "No, I haven't but I'm sure she's fine. She's a blade after all, the most powerful of all time in fact. I'm sure she can take care of herself without you for a few moments," the teen chastised the salvager, slightly annoyed at the teens overprotective nature of the girl.

Rex let out an embarrassed chuckle, scratching the back of his right hand. "I guess you're right. It's just… after the whole Mórag fight, I just realize I'm not as good has I thought," he said crossing his arms, that fight was a big wake up call to him. He thought he was strong enough to reach Elysium and protect Pyra, Mórag showed him how wrong he was. Even with all his new friends, they only escaped from her clutches by the skin of their teeth. It was humbling, to say the least.

Ash opened his mouth, getting where he was coming from, but was cut off.

"Well, Moths to a flame we are, eh?" Nia jokes, appearing from the darkness behind Rex with a grin, Dromarch flanking like the loyal companion he was. "Can't see a darn thing in here, the smell of fish ain't helping things either. Just makes me realize how hungry I am," the Gormotti complained, they weren't exactly having a good day and this situation didn't improve on it any bit.

"Please don't speak food. Tora's tummy rumbly!" Tora called out, announcing his presence from the darkness, waddling up to the gathering, Poppi in tow. "Tora scared when everything go dark. Lucky Rex-Rex make things brighter, in both meanings!" the nopon said with smile, glad he was reunited with his friends, he never was fond of the darkness

"That leaves only Pyra…" Ash noted, scratching his cheek with one hand looking at Rex, maybe he did have something to worry about.

"Present and accounted for," A feminine voice spoke from behind Rex, startling everyone. The entire group quickly turned to look behind them, shining the light into the darkness to reveal Pyra, or at least her head. The rest of her was obscured by a large boulder jutting out of the ground, has if she was hiding behind it.

"There you are. You gave Rex quite the scare," Azurda announced, flying out of Rex's helmet and crossed his arms, raising an eyebrow at her. "Come join us, it must be quite lonely being there, all by yourself," he offered, gesturing her to join the rest of the group.

Pyra had a noticeable blush on her face, like she was too embarrassed to move from her place behind the boulder. She let out a sigh before stepping out and revealing herself, and what she was attempting to hide.

"Arceus! That's bright!" Ash complained has he was hit with sudden wave of green light, the green highlights of her clothes shining brightly in the darkness. "I'm surprised we couldn't find you before," the teen commented, she was like a volbeat in these condition, except even that pokemon would be jealous of how much she glowed.

Pyra looked down at the floor, a massive blush on her face. "I'm really self conscious about it, alright..?" the aegis mumbled quietly, almost inaudible due to constant flopping of the hundreds of fish trying to find some water source. The blade quickly walked forward and stood beside Rex, grabbing his arm hurriedly and inspecting his bandages. "Are 'you' alright, Rex? Your wounds didn't open up after the crash did they?" she asked concerned, her delicate fingers tracing his injury, the small action making him blush intensely at the attention and causing him to stutter a response.

Ash couldn't help but smile at the reunion, the two of them were quite cute together. However, something else caught his attention. Poppi.

While everyone else was laughing at the stuttering boy, the artificial blade's focus was turned elsewhere. Poppi was staring off into the distance, has if something caught her eyes. Ash followed her line of sight and noticed a light in the distance, flickering in and out of existence, probably a good several meters from him. Just as quickly has he saw it, the light disappeared. _Somebody was there…_ the light had to be someone, it seemed to notice them or him and Poppi noticing it, before swiftly vanishing from sight.

"Poppi see flickering lights over there! Something there but gone now," Poppi announced to everyone, pointing a metallic figure to a distant exit, her arm going up and down excitedly, obviously very curious about it.

"Flickering lights?" Rex asked, probably just some lights from the Titan's bioluminescence, Uraya's titan was quite famous for it. Didn't mean he couldn't mess with everyone. "Could be a ghost. Who knows how many people ended up here like us, never making it out," the brunette lied, watching carefully for a reaction.

"A g-ghost? There's no such thing, stop m-messin' around you child!" Nia stammered out, but it was obvious that there was a hint of fear in her voice, her eyes scanning the area carefully for any hints of supernatural activity.

Rex couldn't help but chuckle at her reaction, sadly none of the others seemed bothered by his words, at least he got the person he wanted to mess with the most. "Your not scared are you, Nia? Finally, something that your scared of! I'll be remembering that tidbit," the brunette exclaimed between his chuckling, oh payback was quite sweet for her sniping comments when they first met.

Nia hissed at him, annoyed he'd mess with her during a situation like this. "I'm not! Why would I be afraid of something that don't exist!" she barked out, not at all happy by his laughing that seemed to only grow with her outburst.

"They do exist. I've seen a few," Ash cut in, catching the attention of the bickering duo at his words. "Anyway, let's get out of here. We won't be getting out of here by bickering with each other," he chastised the other two, they needed to find a way out of here and find civilization, at least there they won't have to worry about getting eaten.

Nia's entire body shivered at his calm reply. "Your just messin', right..?" she asked him, only getting a raised eyebrow in reply from raven haired teen, nonverbally saying 'why would I lie about that?' to her. The Gormotti inched her way closer to Ash, safety in numbers from the monsters obviously, she wasn't afraid of some made up baloney! Not at all…

"Ahh… Do we have to?" Nim whined out at the suggestion, her eyes looking hungrily at the mass amount of fish surrounding them, Kit and Sunny having an identical look in their eyes. Just far more… feral. "How about we dig up the brazier from the wreck and have a fishy feast! I'm starved!" she suggested gleefully clapping her furry hands together, dying to taste what Pyra could make with some real ingredients instead of just disgusting army rations. She had to grind her teeth on the jerky just to make it soft to eat, it was horrible and not very filling!

Tora physically flinched at the remark about the destroyed titan ship, even the titan itself was nowhere to be found, floating off somewhere else in the titan. His unclepon is gonna make him spend a fortune for the titan ship, hopefully Ash-Ash can let him ta-burrow some money. He'd pay his friend back… eventually. In small regular payments.

Ash opened his mouth to reject the proposition, admittedly he too was hungry, but felt it wiser to assure their safety. However, somebody beat him to the punch.

"I'd highly advise against that," Gramps spoke up, popping his head from behind Rex's shoulder, shaking his head negatively. "If you haven't figured it out, the Titan just ate. Soon, its digestive processes will begin to break down all this food. Meaning, this chamber and a few more ahead will be filled to the brim in acid. We have roughly…" the tiny titan lifted it's right hand and began counting, mumbling quietly has he performed the math. "Twenty minutes before the titan closes off its head to protect the rest of its body. Minus four to five minutes for your bickering." Azura warned, closing his hand with a nod. "You'd lot better hoof it, I'd rather not be another Titan's dinner and I'm sure the rest of you don't either," with that, the tiny titan retreated back into his perch.

"Alright… let's get out of here and make it snappy," Ash commented, slowly walking away towards where he saw the light come from, it must be the way out. Everyone else quickly followed suit, adhering to the advise of gramps.

The march towards the exit was an uneventful one, Pyra and Poppi aided them with additional lighting, the aegis creating a fireball and the artificial blade's eyes doubling as high powered flashlights. Tora seemed to thought of everything with the blade. They had to deal with some feral animals on the way, at first Nim tried to negotiate with the animals to let them pass unhindered. Turns out, talking with hungry animals didn't work out when they simply wanted to eat you. Shocker. After that failed, violence ensued. That was the much faster and efficient method.

After ten minutes of running up a steep cliff, and knocking nearly two dozen animals in their wake, they came upon an odd sight.

"What's that coming out of the ground?" Ash commented, poking at a strange plated material that was slowly rising to cover an opening in the wall, it was about halfway blocked now. He also noticed significant amount of light, and unlike earlier, it was a constant continuous light and not a flickering one. He was sure that this light was natural.

"Hmm… that must be the protective membrane that will seal the head from the rest of the body, so the acid doesn't spill out and damage the titan and the environment beyond. Best be on the other side of it, I'm sure," Gramps explained, that membrane was the only thing protecting the Titan from it's own stomach acid.

Ash nodded at that, placing his right hand on it and leaping over the blockage. "Oh… you guys gotta see this," the teen commented at the sight he was now beholding, the beautiful bioluminescence of the Titan's hide lit up the sky more than the star themselves on a good day. The unnatural light bathed the grass and stones, it made it seem like something out of a story book, it was dark but also light, like twilight giving the place mystical and otherworldly appearance. It was breathtaking, honestly. Though, it could be annoying to camp outside with a constant never ending source of light bearing down on you.

Everyone soon followed behind him, all of them equally has mesmerized by the sight has Ash. Except Zenobia, obviously she was but playing it off like she wasn't impressed with scenery. "It's so pretty!" Nim squealed out, vocalizing what everyone was thinking at the moment, but everybody knew the Kitsune blade enjoyed it the most. She loved things natural.

"Can't say the same about our new company," Zenobia spoke up, catching everyone off guard with her statement. Everyone turned to look at her and she merely pointed upwards, towards a overhang that seemed to create a natural bridge, more specifically, the group of people on it.

"Well, quite the sorry group of mushes we've stumbled upon, eh boys?" A boastful voice said, a wide grin crossing his lips.

 _Can't this day just end?!_ Ash moaned mentally, he was hungry, he was sore, and starting to get tired. Whoever these strangers were, he doubted they were friendly.

 **-Chapter Ends-**

 **welp, here's chapter 8. sorry for the wait, its been a busy holiday season and I've been hit with a writer's block. Not too much action this time around, more character bonding with a hints of romance. but the next chapter we got everyone's favourite aussie sounding mercenary and we all know he's gonna start a brawl. hopefully you'll enjoy.**

 **Now, since we're in Uraya, that means new blade for our boi Ash!!! I've been stuck at which blade to give our cap wearing trainer. My current top two are Praxis and Obrona, well for story relevance. With Praxis, im planning sorta of a mini arc for Ash in the story, dealing with the Core Crystal Hunters. With Obrona, it will be interesting having a Torna blade during the main story since you can't have them during it. especially since Akhos was pretty heartbroken over her death during the story, that would be an interesting rivalry.**

 **if you guys prefer though, I'll give him a random one instead, if you can think they'd make a good fit with Ash. But please explain why. Kora i could see being like having Dawn in the group, peppy, very fashion oriented, and a cheerleader for Ash like she was in the anime.**

 **Anyway, im out. i hope you guys have a happy holiday, sorry for the belated holiday present.**


	9. Message to my readers!

**Sorry ya'll but this isn't a new chapter, haven't even started it yet but i wanted to address a few comments and clear up certain things:**

 **ZooFan: I agree. Relationships should enhance a characters and not define them, my personal reason for disliking Serena in XYZ initially, she was too much of satellite to Ash than a actual character, to me at least. im hoping to avoid such harem shenanigans, maybe throw such moments here and there for comedy but this won't be pure romance, i simply wanted to plant the seeds. I'm quite bad at choosing romance because i always see merits in different pairings and how characters will grow from pushing their relationship into such an intimate level.**

 **Time-Knight-Leo: That's a hard question. I'd love to build up characters and give more attentions to certain blades but i don't want to oversaturate. remember, we already have 9 characters in this group right now, 8 (9 if you include Mythra) on the way if you include Ash's future blades and the future other drivers with their blades. that's a 18 characters that I'll need to balance out screen time for and will have to interact with each other to build up relationships for to an extent. I'm afraid I'll be either spending too much time without action or ignore characters to an extent. At the very least, Roc will have a more promient role has Rex's blade outside of one cutscene.**

 **Now i need to answer an elpehant in the room, Pyra/Mythra. Certain comments want to pair one or both with Ash. sadly, I'll have to say no. I'd just feel dirty, if one likes Ash and say kisses him, the other one won't want that and it will come off has kinda rapey and messed up to me. Some have suggested splitting them up but what happens to Pyra? she draws power from her other self, will she lose her powers? Will Mythra's life force split between three people? it's just messy. i could give him both but what's the point of Rex? the reason i didn't make Ash simply the Driver of the two was because i knew that will become common place. 'X character becomes the driver of the Aegis' was gonna become the basic story for these crossovers. i wanted to be different and shine some spotlight on other blades that didn't get has much love as the main cast.**

 **now, onto a potential blades for Ash that i think work.**

 **Kos-Mos: She would represent his intelligence. i don't think he's dumb and can come up with plans on the fly, Kos-Mos would represent it but in a cold unfeeling shell at first. plus, she's a robot which will lead to some shenanigans with Nim.**

 **Kora: I already mentioned why, she reminds me heavily of Dawn which is my favourite companion in the pokemon anime.**

 **Electra: She'd be sorta of a little sister to Ash and be analogue for Pikachu. And no, they'll be no romance between them at all.**

 **Minoth: I originally forgot about him when i made the authors note, it was late and i wanted to finish up. He'd be very interesting character, he's the only blade that can truly understand humanity, living with them and growing through aging and degradation that comes with it. Plus his connections to many characters, especially to those in Torna, would make things exciting. plus his weapons would be fun for Ash to use.**

 **Praxis: Denki girl and Denki guy, glove meet hand. i already explained why she's a tempting option.**

 **Obrona: A comment said Akhos would be grateful to Ash for saving Obrona, he would but let's be honest, he'll take every chance to kill our trainer to get her back. would be an amazing rivalry between both groups respective tacticians.**

 **Well, that's all i wanted to say for now. I'll probably delete this in a week, take care everyone.**


	10. I'm so sorry

**Your all probably disappionted when you read this, and i wouldn't blame you if you were. I'm sorry to say but the next chapter is only a quarter of the way done.**

 **I've just found it hard to dredge up the will to write, my job is very physically intensive and leaves me exhausted, leaving me little rest time. and to be honest, my enthusiasm for Xenoblade 2 has started to petered out as well, i still love the game to death but other things have caught my interest over it.**

 **I'm not sure what will happen in the future, maybe I'll put this up for adoption to somebody who has the proper time and energy to contiune were I left off. I know you'll be disappointed, and I'm disappointed in myself, but I'd rather be transparent with my loyal readers than contiune to make excuses.**

 **sorry again, and have a good day.**


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